Who's Who in Vietnam ICT Industry

1. Dr. Mai Liem Truc: Former chief of the General Department of Post and former Deputy Minister of Post and Telecommunications. Dr. Mai Liem is praised as the person who paved the way for the boom of Internet in Vietnam. He was born in 1944 and graduated from the Dresden Technology University in Germany. He can speak five foreign languages. He received a Ph.D diploma in communication technology in 1979. Dr. Truc was formerly chief of the Vietnam Post and Telecommunications Group (VNPT) but he supported breaking up the monopoly in telecommunications. He facilitated the development of new telecom firms like Viettel and S-Fone and dismantling VNPT’s monopoly status in this field. His aim was to empower a strong development for Vietnam’s telecommunications sector.

2. Deputy PM Nguyen Thien Nhan. Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Thien Nhan is said to have had a clear influence on the software industry, IT human resources and IT application in administrative reforms in Vietnam. When he assumed Vice Chairmanship of HCM City, he focused on developing the city’s information technology sector. His hallmark is the Quang Trung Software Park, which hosts 104 software companies and trains more than 3,500 engineers and technicians.
Nhan is now the chief of the National Steering board for IT and the Minister of Education and Training.

3. Professor Dang Huu. Prof. Dang Huu promoted the issuance of the Politburo’s Instruction 58 on promoting the application and development of IT to serve the country’s industrialization and modernization. This instruction is considered grounds for the development of Vietnam’s ICT sector in the last decade. Academic Dang Huu was born on January 2 1930 in Binh Dinh province. He received a degree of transportation from the MADI University in the former USSR in 1966 and became an academic of the Russian Transportation Academy in 1994. He held various positions, including rector of the HCM City University of Technology (1975-1976), deputy minister of University and Vocational Training, chairman of the State Committee for Science and Technology and minister of science and technology. From 1997 to 2002, Huu was chief of the National Standing Committee for IT. In 2003, he won the ASOCIO Award of the Asia-Pacific IT Industry Organization to recognize his contributes to IT development.

4. Former Deputy Minister of Science and Technology Chu Hao. Minister Chu Hao is famous for his open minded approach to Vietnam’s software development and its attempts to attract high technology. He began growing his role in IT in 1995, when he assumed the post of chief of the National Programme for IT Development’s Office. One year later, he was appointed as deputy minister of science and dechnology and chief of the Hoa Lac Hi-tech Park. From 2000 to 2009, Hao took a major role in convincing the government to issue Decree 07/CP in 2000, which targeted turning software into a key industry with a revenue of $500 million by 2005. This decree laid the foundation for the development of the software industry and preferential policies for software industry after that. However, the goal of $500 million was not achieved until 2007. Hao also contributed to attracting big foreign technology groups to Vietnam. He was the first official who met with Intel to invite them to invest in Vietnam. However, he failed to persuade Intel to build a chipset factory at the Hoa Lac Hi-tech Park. Hao is now the director of Knowledge Publishing House. He is implementing a project to publish 100 reference books for Vietnamese people.

5. Former Minister of Post and Telecommunications Do Trung Ta. Minister Do Trung Ta has always been very eager to bring telecom services to rural areas. He is now a special envoy of the PM in IT matters. Ta was chief of VNPT at the time of the opening up of the telecom market and the one who sufficiently contributed to the powerful development of VNPT and Vietnam’s telecommunications. As chief of VNPT and then Minister of Post and Telecommunications, Ta always pursued the goal of developing telecommunications in the rural and remote areas. These areas account for 70 percent of the population. He was also interested in boosting e-government in Vietnam to better serve the people and bring them nearer to the government.

6. Truong Gia Binh, Chairman of the Corporation for Financing and Promoting Technology (FPT Group). He is considered as a figure head of the software industry. Binh was born in 1956, as one of the 13 founders of the FPT Joint Stock Company in 1988. From 1988 to 2008, Binh was the chairman and general director of the FPT. He greatly contributed to turning FPT into a leading IT firm in Vietnam. Binh is also well known as the leader of one of the first software firm in Vietnam, the FPT Software JS Company. He also positively participated in the compilation of the government’s Decree 07/CP in 2000 on developing Vietnam’s software industry in 2000-2005. Binh was also voted as one of the ten most influential persons in the development of Internet in Vietnam between 1997- 2007.

7. Nguyen Manh Hung, Deputy General Director of Viettel Group. Known as the soul of Viettel. Viettel joined the telecom market in 2000 with the VoIP (voice over Internet protocol) service, becoming the first rival of VNPT in the telecom market. It launched the mobile network in September 2004. Though Saigon Postel and SK Telecom launched the S-Fone mobile network in 2003, VNPT’s monopoly in the mobile service market was only really broken when Viettel opened its network, making mobiles popular. In 2006, Viettel began expanding to foreign countries by supplying telecom and Internet services in Cambodia and then mobile services in Laos and Cambodia. After only nine years joining the telecom market, Viettel has developed from zero into the largest mobile market in Vietnam. In five consecutive years, the firm obtained a double growth rate. Hung is praised for being a key leader in Viettel’s development during this period and as a man of far vision, good strategy and good leadership. He is called “the brain of Viettel”.

8. Vu Hoang Lien, the chief of the Vietnam Data Communications Company (VDC). He is credited with bringing broadband Internet into Vietnam in July 2003. Since this service was provided in Vietnam, the number of Internet users has multiplied. Internet has become a popular service, used by around 30 percent of the population. This service has promoted the boom of content services, especially online games, social networks and entertainment services in Vietnam.

9. Than Trong Phuc, the former general director of Intel Vietnam. Phuc was born in HCM City and migrated to the US in 1975 and has American nationality. He graduated from the California University in 1985 with a diploma in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences. He started his career at the Intel group in Santa Clara in 1986 as a market development engineer, in charge of the CAD/CAM market. In January 2000, Phuc was appointed as director of Intel Vietnam. In 2002, he covered Intel’s business in Laos and Cambodia. In October 2009 he stated to leave Intel Vietnam to become the executive manager of the DFJ VinaCapital Fund in December 2009. In nine years working for Intel Vietnam, Phuc significantly contributed to the success of this group in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. Intel currently holds more than 90 percent of the chipset market in Vietnam. The success of Intel in Vietnam greatly contributed to the development and popularity of computers and IT in Vietnam in the last decade. Phuc is also praised for his role as the bridge between Intel and the Vietnamese government, especially in bringing Intel’s biggest chipset plant in the world worth $1 billion to the HCM City Hi-tech Park in 2006. This plant will start operation in 2010.

10. Nguyen Tu Quang, the pioneer in networks security in Vietnam. When he was a third-year student in 1995, Quang wrote the first version of the BKAV anti-virus software and offered it for free. Until now, only BKAV and CMC Infosec are local products that can compare with foreign anti-virus software. According to BKIS Centre, the provider of BKAV, there are 10.5 million people using this software and this software is available in 103 countries and territories. By the end of the third quarter of 2009, BKAV accounted for 85 percent of the market for copyright anti-virus software products in Vietnam.