HCM CITY (VNS) — Viet Nam will have 19 information technology parks by 2020, six of them in the central city of Da Nang, a few too many according to a top executive at HCM City's Quang Trung Software City.

"Setting up a master planning for information technology park development must define demand and the social and economic capability of localities to avoid redundant investment, like sugarcane factories did in the past," Lam Nguyen Hai Long, vice director of QTSC, was quoted as saying by Sai Gon Giai Phong (Liberated Sai Gon) newspaper.

He was referring to the draft of a Master Plan for Information Technology Parks Development for the period until 2020.

Though QTSC received plenty of support from HCM City authorities, it took the park 13 years to re-obtain ISO 9001:2008 quality management certificate and ISO 27001:2008 information security management certificate, he said.

"It is not easy to build an information technology park, especially for provinces without experience and limited resources."

"The information technology park must be managed professionally and create the most favourable conditions and competitive advantages for investors and enterprises," Long said.

Therefore, building an IT park is very complicated and takes more time and money than normal industrial parks, he warned.

According to the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation — and as QTSC's experience has shown – besides location and size, there are many other factors that contribute to the success of parks, including the availability of high-quality human resources locally for long-term development and dovetailing with national, regional and local strategies for political, social, and economic development.

The Government has also refused permission for six other IT parks in several localities after the relevant local departments failed to get approval from local administrations before sending the applications.

The country now has seven IT parks spread over an area of 700,000sq.m. They house 200 enterprises who employ 35,000 engineers and programmers.

QTSC, considered the leading park with 108 companies based there, last year reported a turnover of around VND2.87 trillion (US$130 million), a 35.5 per cent increase year-on-year.

HCM City has promised policies to improve support for IT firms in the park and to build a second QTSC and later a chain of similar parks throughout the country. — VNS