Vietnam rises in tech rankings

Hanoi, July 21 (VNA) - Vietnam has been ranked 81st in the ICT Development Index for 2013, up five places from the previous year's index, according to the Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC). The country was ranked 4th in Southeast Asia and 12th among 27 countries in the Asia Pacific region, said the ministry at the E-Government Symposium 2014 held in the central city of Da Nang on July 17. Meanwhile, the country's e-government index climbed three positions to 34, thanks to the government's effort to push the development of the ICT sector in Vietnam. At present, all 22 ministries and 63 local governments in Vietnam have official information portals. Ninety-five percent of ministries and departments, 98 percent of provincial governments, and 54 percent of district governments used document management software and online management systems. By 2015, the country is targeted to have 10 percent of public services at level 3 (online information provision, online procedure filling, submission and acceptance), with half of all tax reports, pilot e-passports in Hanoi, and 90 percent of customs procedures to be done online. E-government is expected to help improve the services for people and enterprises and improve transparency and ensure equality in performance of State and Government. Vietnam's Information Technology (IT) sector earned 37 billion USD in revenues in 2013, up 48 percent year on year, according to MIC. Of the figure, revenue from software accounted for 3 billion USD with hardware revenues accounting for the rest of the total. According to the Ministry of Information and Communications, Vietnam remained among the top 30 countries in the world and in the top 10 in Asia-Pacific for offshore services. Last year, the Tholons Inc Consultancy continued to place Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi among the top 100 outsourcing destinations in the world. HCM City was ranked 16th while Hanoi was ranked 23rd for software outsourcing, according to the New York-based advisory firm.-VNA