QTSC: A hothouse for software

By Tuong Thuy

When American technology giant Hewlett-Packard decided in late 2010 to build another overseas research centre for software solutions development, it selected Vietnam’s Quang Trung Software City, located in Ho Chi Minh City.

HP’s investment is regarded as one of the software park’s breakthroughs in 2011-2020.

This HP investment illustrates how Vietnam is becoming a more interesting destination for IT research and development activities. It is the giant’s third R&D centre in the world, following previous such investments in China and India.

Heavyweight tech firms from America and Japan are among the investors taking advantage of Quang Trung Software City near Ho Chi Minh City

This year, Japan’s KDDI, another company in the Forbes Top 500, is investing into QTSC, following IBM, HP and some other globally prestigious names.

Quang Trung Software City, better known as QTSC, has built a successful model of software park, creating a convenient business environment for local and foreign IT enterprises and contributing to human resources development for the sector.

It was conceptualised by Ho Chi Minh City Computer Association members for providing adequate facilities for the development of the industry in the city. Its history dates to late 1999 when city leaders approved a proposal to turn the Saigon Software Park in District 3 into a centre to support the development  of the software industry. The place was previously an office of the city administration.

As the number of software companies rapidly increased, Ho Chi Minh City needed a larger software park that could meet the requirements of software firms.

In 2000, with a decision made by the administration, QTSC was established on 43 hectares, 15 kilometres from the city’s downtown. It is run by QTSC Development Company, under the administrative management of the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee.

QTSC Development Company chairman Chu Tien Dung says it was really tough to convince investors coming to QTSC on its early days. There were only 21 enterprises with 250 workers on the day of groundbreaking in 2001. But the park has now welcomed 106 enterprises investing in QTSC, including 56 foreign-invested companies such as HP, IBM, KDDI, Luxoft, TMA, GCS and GHP.

The park boasts seven IT training schools: SaigonTech (with an agreement with Houston Community College in the U.S. to offer certificates and Associate of Applied Science degrees related to computer science technology to college students attending SaigonTech), NIIT (an Indian-Vietnamese partnership), Hoa Sen University, FPT University’s Ho Chi Minh City Campus, Ho Chi Minh City Information Technology Training Centre, Soongsil University, and the Research Institute for Administration Training.

Dung adds QTSC is seeking to attract more investments from big international software companies that can make QTSC’s brand spread out regionally and worldwide. “Each year, we try to attract at least one leading IT firm in the Fortune 500 list.”

Le Thai Hy, director of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Information and Communications, says, “QTSC has built a successful model of software park, creating a convenient business environment for local and foreign ICT enterprises and contributing to human resources development for the industry.”

QTSC chairman Dung says the past 10 years generally achieved the first part of the 20-year road map of Vietnam’s software development for 2000-2020.

“The biggest achievement we got in the past 10 years was that we have software management at international standards trusted by investors,” Dung said. “Vietnam plans to become by the end of the next decade a strong country in ICT and possibly send well-trained software workforce abroad.”

To make the software park model more successful, first of all, he says, the management and technical staff must be trained and improved through practical activities and exchanges.

In addition, investment promotion, market exploration and infrastructure improvement should not be ignored.

At present, QTSC is working out a scheme for the Ho Chi Minh City administration’s approval to build QTSC 2. In addition, QTSC is consulting on the development of other software parks in other provinces.

Dung also mentions QTSC’s most important strategies in the coming years. The top strategy is to forge cooperation with key partners in win-win partnerships.

“We will persuade big IT firms in Vietnam and abroad to invest in Quang Trung Software City in order to incubate and care for startups so that they will become the mainstay of the local domestic software force. “We’ll focus on IT activities to the park a hub of ICT in Vietnam and the region. This will be the key to investment attraction and market development.”

QTSC is moving to a new stage, where it puts focus on quality development. The software park give top priorities to supporting its existing tenants to continue growing, assisting them in media activities, brand development, community activities and networking. Plans include organising CEO clubs, human resources development clubs and seminars.

The software park’s business assistance is also conducted through personnel training, which is backed by Vietnam’s Ministry of Information and Communications and Ho Chi Minh City’s Department of Information and Communications. Recently, QTSC commenced cooperation with as the Korean International Cooperation agency (KOICA).

QTSC is seeking to attract more big international IT companies to be able to build a global supply chain. In addition, given with the presence of the HP R&D centre, it encourages companies to go deeper into research activities.

Nguyen Huu Le, chairman of TMA Solutions, a QTSC tenant, says the global IT sector is going well now with strong outsourcing demand.

There are more orders from abroad than at home. “So, I may say that QTSC is a place where many clients want to come to see how it works and how it is run, or to see how Vietnam can house a world class software park which is able to accommodate software firms that serve the needs of software development and perform outsourcing orders from overseas.”

Ngo Van Toan, vice president of GCS, another firm in QTSC, says he appreciates the park’s continual efforts to support its tenants.

“There are regular networking meetings. There are also monthly CEO meetings,” Toan said. “QTSC is not just a place for companies to hire. It’s really a hub with two main groups of support. The first is to provide timely and effective assistance in infrastructure-related issues. The second is a hub for companies to network.”

Source: www.vir.com.vn