Thanks to its top position in the nation’s index for Information and Communication Technology (ICT) applications and development readiness for many consecutive years, Da Nang is emerging as an attractive destination for foreign information technology (IT) businesses. 

Employees at a local IT company

The Director of the municipal Investment Promotion Centre, Mr Le Canh Duong, reported that over the first half of the year his centre had welcomed around 40 groups of Japanese IT investors to learn about the city’s investment climate.  Over this period some owners of IT corporations from the USA, Singapore and Malaysia had conducted surveys and given high appreciation for the city’s investment environment. 

Mr Duong added that this positive sign can be mainly attributed to the city’s improved e-government, and its preferential policies for foreign investors, including fee reduction for land lease, tax exemptions and support in human resource training.  In addition, the city has a more abundant and harder-working labour force than in Ho Chi Minh City and Ha Noi.

Mr Nguyen Xuan Huy, Director of the Da Nang Sioux Embedded Systems company, said “The reason why my company has chosen Da Nang for opening our first branch in Viet Nam is that the seaside city boasts a modern IT infrastructure and good service quality.  In addition to low labour costs and cheap land lease fees, the city creates a safe working and comfortable living environment for IT experts”.  He remarked that after the first 4 years of operation in the city, his company’s software export turnover has jumped by an average of 75% every year.  This positive result is attributed to the expansion of the company’s consumer markets into Singapore, the USA, and European countries. 

However, many FDI businesses who want to seek investment opportunities in software exports and digital content aspects are finding it very hard to rent premises in the city.  The reason is that there are no spaces for lease at the Software Park No 1, whilst the Software Park No 2 and the dedicated IT Industrial Park are still under construction.

Some local IT experts predict that delays in the construction of the 2 above-mentioned projects will cause many difficulties for foreign businesses who want to pour their investments into the city in the next few years. 

The Director of the Department of Information and Communications, Mr Nguyen Quang Thanh, highlighted the necessity of building international standard IT areas in Da Nang.  These areas will offer a comfortable working environment for IT experts and employees, and feature an e-complex to satisfy their relaxation and entrainment demands.  This will help the city to attract more FDI projects worth millions of USD which will offer thousands of job opportunities to job seekers.