The 2013 Japan Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Week is being held in Ha Noi and Da Nang from 23 - 26 October.

The 4-day event features a wide range of activities, including a seminar on IT cooperation between Vietnamese and Japanese businesses, an overseas business development forum, a writing contest about applications for smart phones and tablets, and a jobs fair.

In Da Nang, a discussion on investment opportunities in the city’s IT sector was held on Thursday fternoon.  The event was co-organised by the city’s Department of Information and Communications, the Viet Nam Software and IT Services Association (VINASA), and the Japan IT Services Industry Association (JISA).

An overview of the discussion

Along with Ha Noi and Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang is one of the country’s top IT industrial hubs.  With its strengths, the city is attracting ever more investment into its IT sector from both domestic and foreign businesses, especially those from Japan. 

During the past 9 months of this year, the city has granted investment licences for ICT projects to 5 more Japanese businesses, worth 31.4 million USD in total.

Da Nang is now home to over 80 Japanese companies and representative offices, with a total capital of around 300 million USD.  These have created jobs for 25,000 local residents.  The majority of the Japanese investment projects focus on producing electronic components, creating software, paper pulp manufacturing, and processing agro-aquatic products and fishing nets for export.  In 2012, the local software industry earned 183 million USD in revenue, of which 20.8 million USD came from exports.