At a press conference in Hanoi on October 6, Atty Claro Parlade, Director of Software Policy for the Business Software Alliance (BSA) Asia-Pacific, which conducted the survey, praised the Vietnamese government’s support for the IT industry’s development and said that Vietnam is one of the few countries in the region to rise in the rankings.

This may help accelerate the recovery of the Vietnamese economy and create the momentum for the country’s long-term development.

This year’s study covered six major areas, including business environment, IT infrastructure, human resources, legal environment, research and development environment and support for the development of the IT industry.

In addition, the use of mobile phones and the latest data relating to information technology were also included in the study.

In recent years, Vietnam’s IT industry has developed rapidly, with total revenues exceeding US$10 billion in 2008 and the number of internet users has risen to 25 percent of the country’s population.

At present, Vietnam is putting in place a strategy that will make it a powerful country in the global information technology industry. It is expected that IT revenues will make up 20-23 percent of the country’s GDP by 2020.