Da Nang is considered one of Viet Nam’s leading localities for the development and effective application of information technology (IT) in local government agencies and departments.  The city is now striving to reach its target of building a knowledge economy and an IT society, as well as making it an e-city in the near future.

Over the past few years, the city has witnessed a rapid growth of local IT services and products.  In particular, production services, software outsourcing, and the manufacturing, assembly and service of electronic hardware have recorded the highest turnover and profits compared with other sectors.

An architect's model of the Da Nang IT Park

Apart from traditional IT aspects, local IT businesses have also taken the initiative to expand and develop even more new services.  They include electronic circuits design, video game outsourcing, and software testing.  Many local IT enterprises have attached importance to expanding their export markets to Japan, South Korea, the USA, Australia and other countries.

As for its investment attraction policies, the city has entered into cooperative agreements with a number of the world’s largest IT groups.  They include the technology giant IBM, the Panasonic, Hitachi Solutions and Zenrin companies from Japan, the Information Society Agency (NIA) from South Korea, and the Rocky Lai and Associates Group from the USA.  The focus is to build Da Nang into a smarter city, with e-government, the Integrated Circuits Design Centre, the dedicated IT parks, and a trial wireless network for monitoring the environment and mitigating natural disasters, plus a pilot digital map.

Last year, the IT sector generated locally 3,991 billion VND in revenue, an increase of nearly 50% year-on-year.  The total export turnover of software rose by 57.6% year-on-year to an estimated 20.8 million USD, fulfilling 138.7% of the year’s target.

The city will give top priority to speeding up effective IT applications in local government agencies and departments.  Special attention will be paid to the e-government standard framework which has been approved by the local authorities, and to facilitating online access by local residents for public and essential services.

In addition, a focus will be on improving the IT infrastructure, training high-quality IT human resources, along with implementing software development projects and promoting the development of the digital content industry in the city.