IS TAKING A SHORT CUT A SUITABLE STRATEGY FOR IT POLICY IN VIETNAM
The year 2001 brought many important and vigorous changes to the Vietnam’s Information Technology (IT). ... From the year 2001, the slogan “Taking short cut and catch up,” spirit of the decree instructed by the Prime Minister Phan, has been propagated on most of Vietnamese mass media. ... Is “Taking a short cut and catch up” a suitable strategy for our country in the development of IT? Whether many report about developing rate of IT in recent years support a creditable evident for applying this strategy in the national long-term policy? ... However, base on many recent reports on the current situation of applying the products and uses of IT in many sectors such as industry, education, and economy, we can assert that “Taking a short cut and catch up” is not a simple strategy in our national policies of IT development. ... Before the event of the date 04/25/2001, by any international standard, the level of IT in Vietnam is low. Five years before, Vietnam had compared unfavorably with other countries in Southeast Asia, such as Thailand and Singapore, where numerous, relatively advanced implementations of IT were in place both in industry, the service sector, and in public institutions. At the time point of the year 2001, the situation in Vietnam has improved, but the gap with neighboring countries has widened. As a country located in a resourceful and newly-industrialized region, Vietnam is unquestionably a latecomer in the systematic use of IT. ... Following data from a report to the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment fetched out the situation seems to be worse: Vietnam has a relatively small number of computers installed. ... Our most recent estimate for the first quarter of 1994, based on a series of visits to industrial firms, higher education institutions and government agencies during the second half of 1993, as well as interviews with Vietnamese and foreign experts, is that some 40 000-45 000 computers, mostly PCs and other microcomputers, are in use in Vietnam. ... 1994) Additionally, the report also indicated the following problems for the diffusion of information technology in Vietnam:limited number of specialists and few opportunities for the development of human resources; low technical level of available hardware and software; limited number of computers and related equipment; lack of technical advisory, maintenance and repair services; and innsufficient institutional framework: limited facilities and activities in universities, institutes, centers, specialized commercial companies. Being in the face of such tie-ups, the Vietnamese government has made an outline for new policies to re-form the domestic IT industry and “Taking a short cut and catch up” is considered as a working motto and a core of these strategies. The slogan delineates an act of the government in which, Vietnam’s IT will approach the current progress of international IT industry; imbibe and improve latest achievements of the world wide IT’s sectors; overleap the time frame of doing research and development on the basic framework of IT. At the beginning, the strategy influenced and completely changed the face of IT in Vietnam. National mass communications have continuously transmitted information about hearting progresses of IT in Vietnam. “On that powerful impetus,” PC World Vietnam - one of the most famous IT magazines in Vietnam - notified “Vietnam has the highest growth rate in IT development in the region.