Vietnam software industry sees robust growth

By Vien Thong September 6, 2018 | 05:00 pm PT

Vietnam’s software industry is growing strongly with revenues of existing companies surging and Vingroup announcing its entry into the sector.

Quang Trung Software City in Ho Chi Minh City, the country’s top information and technology hub, reported revenues of VND3.3 trillion ($142 million) in the first half of this year for the 155 businesses operating inside.

This figure, which was up 25.5 percent year-on-year, included $93.4 million worth of software exports, up 36.5 percent.

Revenues of Quang Trung Software City last year were worth over VND8 trillion ($344 million), a 25 percent rise over 2016.

These growth rates are common for top software companies, including giant FPT Software, which has been reporting them since 2010.

Last year FPT’s exports were worth VND6.2 trillion ($266 million). It plans to increase that number to VND7.7 trillion ($331 million) this year, and to $1 billion by 2020.

The high growth rates obviously mean increasing job creation by the sector.

Data from VietnamWorks, a leading recruitment company, shows there were 15,000 new jobs in the information technology sector last year, 1.5 times the 2015 number.

More than half of them were in HCMC, the country’s largest technology hub.

Last month realty and retail behemoth Vingroup announced plans to focus intensively on the technology sector by establishing VinTech, which will focus on AI, software and new materials.

Vietnam’s software exports last year were worth VND58.5 trillion ($2.5 billion), up 4.4 percent from 2016, according to the Ministry of Information and Technology.