According to organisers, the purpose of the Vietnam ICT Index is to evaluate the readiness for development and application of ICT of ministries, sectors, provinces and enterprises and to make clear the panorama of the development and application of ICT in Vietnam. Through the index, ministries, sectors, provinces and enterprises will be able to understand their actual ICT situation and take appropriate measures.

The Vietnam ICT Index 2005 is broken down into four groups: provinces and cities, central management bodies, commercial banks and state corporations.

In particular, the ICT Index for provinces and cities is defined based on five criteria: technical infrastructure; human resources; application; production and business; and organisation environment and ICT policy.

For the three remaining groups, the index is specified based on four norms: technical infrastructure; human resources; application; and organisation environment and ICT policy.

The Vietnam ICT Index was created at the initiative of the Vietnam Information Processing Association with contributions from the Ministry of Post and Telematics (MPT) and the National Steering Committee for IT.

The Vietnam ICT Index 2005 was made through a survey at 60 of 64 provinces and cities, 26 of 28 ministries and sectors, 29 of 48 commercial banks, and 44 of 97 state corporations.

Among provinces and cities, HCM City and Hanoi rank first and second, followed by Da Nang city, the Mekong Delta’s Can Tho city, Ba Ria – Vung Tau province and Khanh Hoa province.

Surprisingly, Bac Ninh province in the north, which is considered to have successfully applied IT, is not among the top ten provinces and cities for ICT development and application.

Among the top 20 provinces and cities in ICT development and application are localities of high economic development speeds, except for the two mountainous provinces of Lam Dong in the Central Highlands and Lao Cai in the north.

Of the 20 provinces at the bottom of the list, most of are mountainous and isolated localities, except for the low-land provinces of Thai Binh and Ha Tay in the north.

Regarding ministries and sectors, the Ministry of Trade tops the list, followed by the MPI and the Finance Ministry. The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development is at the bottom (26), behind the Ministry of Education and Training (25) and the Fisheries Ministry (24).

According to organisers, earning the number-one position, the Trade Ministry has proven its determination in ICT application. The newly established MPT has obtained the second position thanks to its qualified human resources infrastructure for ICT.

A big surprise in the ranking list for commercial banks is that state commercial banks receive poor rankings. Only the Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam (Vietcombank) and the Bank for Agriculture and Development of Vietnam (Agribank) enter the top ten. The eight remaining positions belong to commercial joint-stock banks. The first, second and third positions go to the Hanoi Urban Housing Commercial Joint-stock Bank, the Vietnam Technology and Commercial Bank, and the Asia Commercial Bank.

On the list of state corporations, the three top positions belong to the Vietnam Automobile Industry Corporation, Vietnam Steel Corporation and Vietnam Airlines.

(Source: TBKTVN)