By
James
Middleton
03/29/2002
Emerging
industry wins US government outsourcing deal The
US government last week signed its first deal to
outsource software development to Vietnam. Under
the terms of the six-month deal, the US state of
Oklahoma will outsource the development of a
trade website to Vietnam-based technology
company Silkroad Systems.
A report published last week by Research
Vietnam revealed that big name North American
companies are outsourcing to the country, along
with European and Japanese players.
Nortel, Cisco, IBM, Hewlett Packard, British
Aerospace, BP and Sony are just some of the
names investing in Vietnam.
"We did not have any reservations about
working with Vietnam-based developers since the
country has a vast pool of intellectual
resources that is largely untapped," said Hung
Truong of Nortel.
Dan Stern, director of Research Vietnam,
which produced the IT Vietnam 2002: Outsourcing
to an Emerging Market report, said: "The fact
that Vietnam is starting to attract public
sector work from the US demonstrates that the
country's emerging IT industry is finally
getting global recognition."
According to the report, IBM is setting up
its own outsourcing centre in Vietnam after
successfully outsourcing projects to third-party
providers.
Le Quang Tri, IBM software solutions manager
in Vietnam, stated: "We are looking closely at
Vietnam this year and may consider opening a
development centre in the near future.
"Work is going on and talks have already
started between IBM and the Vietnamese
government."
William Baker, a director at Pacific
Ventures, which will act on behalf of the State
of Oklahoma during the six-month deal,
explained: "If you can acquire the same or
better technology and IT solutions at 50 per
cent of normal cost, the bottom line becomes a
reality.
"The combination of high quality work and
lower costs makes Vietnam a very attractive
place for IT outsourcing right now."
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