Vietnam dreams of its own Silicon Valley
Hanoi, HCM City, Da Lat and Da Nang are all believed to have natural and human conditions to become the Silicon Valleys of Vietnam.
“Vietnam’s Tech Boom: A Look Inside Southeast Asia’s Silicon Valley” is the title of a 3,000-word article on PCMag http://www.pcmag.com, a technology news website, published on September 3.
The article includes opinions about the great potential of Vietnam, which has shown its strong determination to turn the country into an information technology (IT) powerhouse globally. The magazine said the country was moving ahead to reach that goal.
Fifteen years ago, It was difficult to find IT firms in Vietnam. Since then, 14,000 IT firms have been established in the country which have expanded their research scope, and developed businesses in many fields, from hardware to software and digital content.
Quang Trung Software Park’s CEO Lam Nguyen Hai Phong said that technology development was considered the nucleus for economic development.
The government has made heavy investment in infrastructure and applied necessary policies to encourage investors to invest in technologies.
According to Dat Viet, the “Vietnam Silicon Valley” project came into being on June 4, 2013 with the initial fund of $400,000.
The project is hoped to have a direct impact on the formation of technology startups and the establishment of a Silicon Valley for businesses.
In HCM City, the US Silicon Valley model will be developed at the HCM City Hi-tech Park through a Viet Kieu (overseas Vietnamese) investor in the US.
On April 27, R.E.M.A.X, Vector Fabrication Vietnam and Nguyen Trung Quang received the investment certificate on the establishment of the Saigon Silicon Park JSC which will develop infrastructure items at Saigon Silicon City within the campus of the HCM City Hi-tech Park (SHTP) in district 9.
According to Nguyen Minh Hieu, president of Saigon Silicon, the project is capitalized at VND860 billion, or $40 million, and will be developed on an area of 52 hectares in SHTP.
The construction is scheduled to begin next month, while it would begin attracting investment from 2016.
Lam Dong province, the education center of the central region and Central Highlands, also dreams of developing into a high technology center. It spent VND515 billion to develop an IT industry from 2007 to 2015.
Meanwhile, Da Nang City is building its own Silicon Valley with huge investment capital of $278 million.
The construction of the first Da Nang IT Park began in April 2013 in Hoa Vang district. The project, invested in by Rocky Lai & Associates Inc, covers an area of 341 hectares.
