Microsoft has pledged to support Vietnam to accelerate its economic growth through developing a healthy and competitive information technology environment, with more focus on strengthening the ICT industry and boosting intellectual property protection. This is an agreement signed between Vietnam’s Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC) and Microsoft Corp. October 30 under the presence of the U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Vietnamese Deputy PM Pham Gia Khiem. The two sides will work closely to develop IT workforce for Vietnam, which is aimed to help the country reach its target to have a strong advanced IT industry by 2020. The industry is expected to account for 20% of its gross domestic products by that time. They issued joint initiatives on the establishment of an ICT Expertise Center, a national CIO training program for Vietnam, and executive programs for senior ministry and government leaders at Microsoft’s world-class Executive Briefing Center in the U.S. to discuss and address the business needs of the government. Under the agreement, Microsoft will also provide licensed software products for use in Vietnamese government agencies. Further information of the deal was not disclosed. The deal shows the strong commitment of Vietnam’s government to protecting intellectual property rights, the Thoi bao Kinh te newspaper reported. The first deal was signed between the two sides in May 2007, which has allowed all 63 provincial authorities, 24 ministries and state-run enterprises to use genuine software of Microsoft in three years. This was also part of the strategic public-private partnership agreement between Vietnam and Microsoft to accelerate the growth of the ICT economy. (www.mic.gov.vn [1] Oct 30, Thoi bao Kinh te – Economic Times Daily Nov 2 p2)
