TMA Solutions, one of the largest software outsourcing companies in Vietnam, has established the TMA Innovation Centre to develop new software products and solutions based on the fourth Industrial Revolution's technologies, said Tran Phuc Hong, the company’s vice president.

At at technology exhibition recently held in Ho Chi Minh City 

TMA, which has more than 2,500 engineers, provides software services for customers in 27 countries and territories.

It is one of the few software companies in Southeast Asia that has over 300 engineers working on technologies such as artificial intelligence, data science, blockchain, and IoT for customers in the US, Canada, the EU, Japan and Australia in the fields of telecommunications, electronics, cars, e-commerce, healthcare, pharmaceuticals and agriculture, according to Hong.

TMA and many other software development businesses in Vietnam not only provide outsourcing services for customers, but also work with customers from the consulting phase to the solution phase.

According to the Vietnam Information Technology Outsourcing Alliance (VNITO Alliance), Vietnam has achieved much success in the software outsourcing field over the last decade, and many countries regard it as an Asian outsourcing hub.

Today, Vietnamese businesses are ready to research and develop new products instead of just doing outsourcing in an aim to become an "Innovation Hub" in Southeast Asia, it said.

Lam Nguyen Hai Long, honorary chairman of VNITO Alliance and CEO of Quang Trung Software City (QTSC), said that people in the past had focused only on IT outsourcing, but in the last five years Vietnam-made IT products have started to appear in the market.

“In the past, we mainly programmed and wrote code based on foreign companies’ demands. In recent years, we've been hired to do innovative work, or develop complete or partial products.

“Vietnamese companies, after doing software outsourcing for foreign companies, have acquired a lot of experience and moved to the next level. They can come up with made-in-Vietnam products that are appreciated by global companies," he said.

Software outsourcing usually brings higher value compared to outsourcing in other fields. “If we convert from software outsourcing to software development, I believe that the value addition will increase by 20 to 40 times and the Vietnamese brand will spread widely,” Long added.

With its fast-growing tech industry and young, educated workforce, Vietnam is expected to create many innovative products and solutions for the global market, he said.

Ngo Van Toan, vice chairman of VNITO Alliance and vice president of Global CyberSoft (Vietnam) JSC, told Vietnam News: “Fortunately, the Vietnamese are very receptive to and capable in new technological fields. In fact, Vietnamese enterprises are now able to implement projects using the latest technologies such as big data, artificial intelligence, and the internet of things.

“Vietnamese engineers can now carry out onsite projects for customers all over the world. This means we are really strong in the new technology field.”

Hong, as well as leaders of other software companies, said that many Vietnamese tech companies are adopting innovation to provide higher value services and products, and to become a centre for innovation development.

Long said to promote Vietnamese innovative products to local and international markets, businesses need support from Vietnam’s trade offices abroad.

The Government needs to have programmes that promote innovative Vietnamese products abroad, he said, adding that it also "needs communication activities so that people and organisations can know that we are able to make innovative products and to encourage them to use made-in-Vietnam products”.

Export growth

Vietnam’s exports of IT services have increased significantly in recent years and the momentum will continue in the coming years, according to the Ministry of Information and Communications.

IT exports reached 3.5 billion USD last year, a year-on-year increase of 11.6 percent, it said.

Toan said the export potential in the field is "huge”.

Currently, the country exports to a few dozen countries, but Japan, North America and Europe are still the biggest markets.

“Key markets such as North America, the EU and Japan have a very high demand for IT services. But we do not have sufficient resources and personnel to accept and implement all of these projects from these countries.”