The Asia Pacific Director of the Business Software Alliance Tarun Sawney said that Viet Nam had taken significant steps to reduce copyright violations. VNS Photo

HA NOI (Biz Hub) — The Asia Pacific Director of the Business Software Alliance (BSA) Tarun Sawney has praised Viet Nam's efforts in cracking down on copyright violations in a meeting with General Director of the Copyright Office, Vu Ngoc Hoan.

The meeting took place last Thursday and marked the fifth anniversary of a joint memorandum signed between the Ministry of Culture's Copyright Office and the BSA on August 26, 2008; and discussed achievements since the policy's implementation.

Tarun said that Viet Nam had taken significant steps to reduce copyright violations which decreased from 92 per cent in 2004 to 81 per cent in 2011.

The General Director of the Copyright Office, said "we will continue to put contents written on the memorandum into action. We will also hold programmes to improve the awareness of software copyright for organisations, enterprises and individuals. Our long goal is to decline the rate of copyright violations in Viet Nam to 60 per cent, which is equivalent to the average proportion in the Asia-Pacific".

A recent study carried out by the BSA and top business school, INSEAD, has showed that using copyright software has become a profitable and productive exercise for Vietnamese businesses. The study quantified the economic value of using copyrighted software, estimating that a one per cent increase in use injected around US$87 million into the national economy.

According to the ministry's Deputy Inspector General, Pham Xuan Phuc, the ministry had investigated around 64 firms; checking around 3,958 computers and fining organisations and individuals a total of VND1.3 billion ($61,900) in the first eight months of this year for copyright infringements. — VNS