PM Nguyen Tan Dung just approved a Master Plan on information technology which aims to turn Vietnam into a developed country in ICT by 2020.

The overall target of the plan emphasizes international standards for ICT human resources and the key role played by the industry, especially software and digital content as well as services, in GDP growth and exports.

ICT industry is expected to contribute around 8-10% of the country’s GDP and its revenue growth to double or triple the GDP growth rate by 2020.

Up to 30% of ICT graduates will be qualified to fill international market openings by 2015 and 80% by 2020. The number of Internet users will account for over 50% of the population by 2015 and over 70% by 2020.

Domestic enterprises are urged to design and produce equipment to replace imports by 2015, to bring Việt Nam to a top ten supplier of software processing service and digital content.

The broadband infrastructure will be expanded to almost all rural villages and hamlets while the mobile broadband network will cover up to 95 percent of the national population by 2020.

With all this effort, Vietnam is expected to enter the group of 55 under the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) ranking, which represents the one-third of leading nations in this field.

The country is also set to emerge among the one third of leading nations in the UN ranking in readiness for e-Government and Vietnamese e-Government is set to rank above average in the world./.

VGP