Vietnam’s internet environment ranked 32nd in the world

By VnExpress March 7, 2017 | 04:35 am PT

People use internet on their phones in Hanoi. Photo by VnExpress/Ngoc Thanh

The country is number one in the world for local content, but scores poorly on internet education.

A new index that measures a country's internet for its availability, affordability, relevance of content and public access has found that Vietnam is doing better than more than half of the world.

The 2017 Inclusive Internet index compiled by the Economist Intelligence Unit assessed 75 markets on how they enable the adoption and beneficial use of the internet.

Vietnam stands in 32nd place overall for internet availability, affordability, relevance and readiness.

The country stands above its Southeast Asian neighbors Indonesia and the Philippines, but far behind Malaysia, Thailand and the number 1 position holder Singapore.

It performs “relatively strongly” in terms of relevance, with a global ranking of 18th out of 75, supported by a top score in local content.

Many non-English-speaking markets have made considerable progress in ensuring that domestic internet users have content available to them in their country’s primary language, said the Economist.

Vietnam is among 13 markets tied for first place in the local content category, along with China, Japan and Russia.

But the country scores low in terms of internet readiness due to limited support for digital literacy and web accessibility, based on the index. Vietnam’s education and preparedness for internet use ranks 63rd worldwide.

Availability ranks 40th worldwide with a high score for quality, but network infrastructure is poorly developed.

Its affordability ranks 32nd with a top score for fixed-line monthly broadband costs.

More than 49 million Vietnamese people, or more than half of the country’s population, are online.

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