HÀ NỘI — Despite developments in human resources in the information technology (IT) sector, many Vietnamese firms still start up in other countries, such as the United States, Singapore and Japan.

This means many issues for IT developers in the start-up ecosystem in Việt Nam must be improved, Nguyễn Nhật Quang, vice chairman of the Việt Nam Software and IT Services Association (VINASA), said at a conference held in Hà Nội this week.

The Industrial Revolution 4.0 is changing day by day and reshaping economic and social activities. Building a strong ecosystem that facilitates the development of Vietnamese enterprises in a dynamic and competitive market is one of the IT firms’ concerns.

Đào Đình Khả, general director of the Department of Information Technology – Ministry of Information and Communications, said that while IT development in Việt Nam was not a recent innovation, its implementation had encountered difficulties in terms of efficiency. This was reflected in the challenges faced by firms in the upgrading of IT products and in the slow application process, he said, adding that processes for the upgrading of successful products were quite difficult and inefficient.

Systems interconnectivity between State agencies and enterprises is also not as desirable, Khả said. IT businesses are operating in relative isolation, failing to exploit development platforms and appropriate development ecosystems. The scale of products and solutions is becoming increasingly complex, making it difficult to allow individual enterprises to be deployed extensively, he said.

Konstantin Matthies, a consultant for AlphaBeta Advisor, predicted a bright future for the software industry and software developers in Việt Nam, but said the country needed to improve its legal framework to support developers as well as investors.

“The digital economy has provided significant opportunities for Asia-Pacific countries, Southeast Asia and Việt Nam in particular,” Matthies said. “However, for Việt Nam, there is a large room for improvement. To grow a robust developer ecosystem, Việt Nam should focus on cultivating digital talent and a conductive technology investment climate.” — VNS