Thorough explanation of IT in Vietnam! Attractiveness of human resources, areas of expertise, national policy

The IT situation in Vietnam

According to a survey by Resorz (offshore development.com), in recent years Vietnam has had a strong connection with IT and is the most popular destination for offshore development (consignment of system and software development work to overseas companies and local subsidiaries). country. The background to this is that Vietnam is making a national effort to develop IT human resources, and the IT human resources are abundant and high-level, yet labor costs are low. Other reasons include that Vietnam is a pro-Japanese country and that it is geographically close to Japan.

However, not many people have a concrete understanding of Vietnam’s IT initiatives.

Therefore, in this article, for company managers who are considering offshore development and utilization of IT human resources in Vietnam, freecracy, a company that develops business centered on IT in Vietnam, will introduce various IT situations in Vietnam. I will explain from my point of view.

The reasons for choosing Vietnam for offshore development are explained in the following article. The content is related to the IT situation in Vietnam, and if you check it together, it will be useful for your company’s system and software development.

IT in Vietnam: Attractive IT human resources

One of the IT circumstances in Vietnam is the availability of attractive human resources. In this chapter, we will pick up four representative reasons why Vietnam’s IT human resources are considered attractive, and explain them in order.

The large population of IT personnel

According to TopDev’s research report, as of 2022, the population of Vietnam’s IT human resources (developers) will be 480,000. In recent years, Vietnam has seen an increase of 57,000 people each year who have majored in IT and technology at university and entered society as engineers.

By the way, about 90% of Vietnam’s IT human resources are concentrated in urban areas (Ho Chi Minh: 55.3%, Hanoi: 34.1%, Da Nang: 5.9%). Looking at the breakdown of IT human resources by age, 53.97% are 20-29 years old and 26.98% are 30-39 years old, indicating that the majority of IT human resources in Vietnam are young. In addition, 52.1% of IT personnel have 3 years or less of experience, while developers with 5 years or more account for about 30%. I have been working in IT for more than 10 years in Vietnam, and in the past, I was often told that there were only junior engineers, but now there are enough IT human resources at all levels from upstream to downstream who can entrust projects. I’m here.

Looking at the demographics of IT human resources by skill level, the middle level accounted for the largest number, accounting for 34%. This is followed by junior level (29%) and senior level (18%).

Reference: TopDev “VietnamITMarketReport_TechHiring2022”

a lot of studying

Vietnamese people have a high desire to improve, and because it is easier to change jobs than Japanese people, it is known that many people study to improve their skills even after entering the workforce. Especially in the world of IT, where new technologies are invented and developed every day, studying is essential.

According to a 2017 survey report by IPA, the average study time of IT personnel in Vietnam is 3.5 hours (per week), which is second only to India, an IT powerhouse, with 4.0 hours. In addition, according to this survey, it is reported that China is tied for second place with Vietnam, and unfortunately Japan is the lowest with 1.9 hours.

In Vietnam, coupled with continuous high economic growth since the 2010s, it is believed that the strong motivation to achieve even higher incomes with effort is behind this current situation.

high-level engineering

Vietnam has prioritized the promotion of education as a national policy, with a particular focus on information technology. As a result, Vietnam won 3rd place in the world at the International Mathematical Olympiad in 2017 (4th place in the world in 2022). The average ranking for the last 10 years has been around 10th, which is higher than Japan and European countries.

In recent years, Vietnam has also achieved good results in international programming contests. In particular, Vietnam National University, Hanoi has advanced to the finals for five consecutive years from 2015 to 2019 as a prestigious university in Vietnam. In 2018, the ranking was 15th, which is higher than prestigious universities such as Harvard University, Stanford University, and Indian Institute of Technology.

low cost

Labor costs for IT human resources in Vietnam have risen slightly, mainly in AI/ML (Kubernetes, TensorFlow, Python) and cloud computing (AWS, GCP, Azure), but are still at a low level compared to developers in Japan. is.

In general, the labor cost of IT human resources in Vietnam is considered to be about 1/2 to 1/3 of that in Japan. Therefore, it can be said that offshore development using Vietnamese IT human resources is an effective option as a means of realizing cost reduction.

IT in Vietnam: Diverse fields of expertise in development

Another feature of Vietnam’s IT personnel is that they have a wide variety of areas of expertise. In this chapter, we will introduce the areas of expertise of Vietnamese IT human resources from the aspects of programming languages ​​and development genres.

programming language

According to the TopDev research report mentioned above, JavaScript is the most popular programming language for Vietnamese IT talent. Among them, popularity is concentrated in React, Node.js, Angular, etc.

In addition to the above, programming languages ​​such as Java, MySQL, Spring Boot, Laravel, .NET Core, Django, and AWS are also popular, and it can be seen that Vietnam’s IT personnel can handle a wide variety of programming languages.

Development genre

In recent years, among the offshore development contractors in Vietnam, many companies specialize in smartphone application development, and the popularity of smartphone application development is increasing among IT personnel in Vietnam. In addition, the number of Vietnamese companies that develop web systems and social games is also increasing.

In addition, some companies specialize in art design and companies handle design work such as 2D/3D graphics and UI/UX design for games and animations. From the above, it can be said that many IT companies in Vietnam specialize in various fields.

IT in Vietnam: IT human resource development by national policy

In Vietnam, based on the Education Law enacted in 1998, English education and computer education are provided from the third grade of elementary school. In addition, the government is leading the promotion of digitization of the entire school and the active introduction of IT equipment, with a particular focus on strengthening STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics). As a result of these national policies, as of 2021, ICT-related sales in Vietnam will reach approximately US$136.1 billion.

In addition to the above, Vietnam is actively promoting infrastructure development. For example, in 2019, the Internet usage rate in Vietnam was 70% (percentage of the population), an increase of 10% compared to the same period last year. In addition, smartphone ownership has reached 93% (percentage of Internet users aged 16-64), and almost all adults in Vietnam now have a smartphone. In other words, Vietnam’s Internet penetration rate and infrastructure development have reached a level comparable to that of developed countries.

Furthermore, the Vietnamese government is also focusing on attracting foreign companies. In addition to enhancing the support system for Vietnamese IT companies, we are taking preferential tax treatment for foreign IT companies. Specifically, we offer a 4-year corporate tax exemption and a 9-year tax reduction (the preferential period can be extended up to 30 years) to support expansion into Vietnam. As a result, many foreign IT companies, including Japanese companies, are now expanding into Vietnam.

As mentioned above, the country’s education policy, infrastructure development, and attracting foreign companies have come to fruition, and Vietnam is growing into a powerhouse of IT human resources.

IT in Vietnam: the future

In the future, the Vietnamese government is expected to come up with various measures to promote the digitization and DX of the country.

In fact, in 2020, the Vietnamese government approved the “National Digital Transformation (DX) Program to 2025 and Policy to 2030”, and the Prime Minister signed the Government Decree “749/QD-TTg”. Masu.

The plan envisions Vietnam becoming a digital nation by 2030, improving government management and operations, enterprise production and business activities, and the people’s living and working environment. We aim to innovate. The Vietnamese government has said that while creating a digital government, a digital economy, and a digital society, it will also support the establishment of global digital enterprises.

In the 749/QD-TTg, by 2030, we aim to achieve 100% optical fiber coverage, top 30 in the ICT Development Index (IDI), top 30 in the Global Competitiveness Index (GCI), and broadband Specific goals such as coverage status 5G available nationwide are defined.

Up to now, the Vietnamese government has been focusing on developing IT human resources, but in the future, based on the above plan, we will further promote the transformation of the country into DX, the digitalization of government administration, and the transformation of IT. It is guessed.

summary

In recent years, Vietnam has become the most popular destination for offshore development. One of the reasons why Vietnam is gaining popularity as an offshore development contractor is its focus on developing IT human resources.

Vietnam’s IT human resources are not only characterized by a large population, but also by the fact that they are enthusiastic about studying, have a high level of engineers, and can keep costs down compared to Japanese engineers. In addition, we have a variety of areas of expertise in terms of programming languages ​​and development genres and can outsource various development tasks as an offshore development contractor.

Since the Vietnamese IT market is expected to continue growing in the future, we recommend considering it as a candidate for offshore development outsourcing.

Familiar with the business environment in Japan and Vietnam, freecracy’s lab-type development (a type of offshore development, which secures a dedicated team of engineers for a certain period and retains the data of 500,000 Vietnamese excellent engineers) Development under instructions), we strongly support the construction of the ideal development team and environment with “infinite x high-level engineer resources”.

If you have any questions or requests for lab-type development, please feel free to contact free crazy.