Norman Scott, Partner in the IBM Global Business Services organisation and Clients and Market Development Leader across ASEAN, made the statement on the sidelines of the 2008 CIO Conference, which opened in Hanoi on September 17.

He cited the result of a recent interview conducted by IBM in Southeast Asia with more than 5.000 CIOs, showing that CIOs’ capacity for creativity is the second important factor. Next comes their capacity for global integration (not only in technology, but also in business administration and human resource development). Last but not least, CIOs should be able to deal with problems and adapt themselves to new changes, he said.

According to Steve Leonard, President of EMC Asia Pacific/ Japan, EMC Corporation, there is a growing trend to have CIOs specializing in technology management as information is booming in many countries. For example, YouTube had only six million video clips in 2006. However, the figure has since reached up to 84 million. More and more individuals create information instead of organisation as previously. Hence, it is essential to have more CIOs to manage this information flow.

Mr Trung also noted that it is important to pay due attention to the needs of lower levels of businesses and organisations in order to ensure that all members can get benefits from IT application.