This is the main target of a project to make the country soon become stronger in information technology and communication, which was approved by the Prime Minister on September 22, 2010.

Digital content corners the market

Digital content is no longer a novelty to Vietnamese people, especially the young ones, as they daily use computers and mobile phones with different kinds of services such as email, chat, blog, game online and e-business. Vietnam is a promising market with 30 million internet users and nearly 50 million mobile phones owners.

Some years ago, digital content products were provided by a limited number of businesses in Vietnam including the VinaGame Group (VNG), the Vietnam Multimedia Corporation (VTC), the FPT Group and the Vietnam Data Communication Company (VDC).

In fact, two Vietnamese social networks (go.vn and Zingme), VTC and the online newspaper VnExpress are still lagging far behind the giant trademarks of Google, Yahoo, Facebook and Twitter.

Global digital content services are expected to reach an impressive figure of US$1.3-1.7 trillion in 2014 with the Asia-Pacific region holding the lion’s share and Vietnam alone earning US$1 billion last year thanks to its annual growth rate of 50 percent in five successive years.

Many universities and businesses are focused on training human resources for this industry. FPT has recently opened its own university while Bac Ha International University has sought investment from the CMC Corporation and Viettel Group.

“As there are no special courses for students, VTC is now in charge of training them in digital content technology and telecommunication management,” said Phan Sao Nam, VTC Online Director.

Educational trends and competitive advantages

The upside is that digital content and technology can be applied in a flexible way by Vietnamese staff, especially those working overseas. For most businesses, they often enjoy more-take-than-give policies for this model.

However, not all skilled workers involved in the process as many refuse to work in the international environment.

In addition, most students need a lot of retraining after recruitment to improve their skills.

“VTC Online now has branches in 10 most technological advanced countries including the US, Russia, Japan, the Republic of Korea and China. There is a plan afoot to invite foreign experts to give lectures to last-year students in Vietnam so that they can practice later in some subsidiary companies or even work for any particular country to become a true global citizen,” Nam said.

In the face of fierce competition with other businesses and training centres to enhance the quality of workforce, VTC Online has focused on training students in programming languages and helping them create a final product themselves or understand more about different stages of production and the importance of teamwork.

In 2009, Vietnam had 295,000 people working in the field of information technology, more than half of them for hardware and electronic businesses, 25 percent for software companies and 20 percent for the digital content sector.