According to the ITC Index 2010 report, Da Nang continues to top the country for IT application readiness, followed by HCM City and Hanoi.

A building inside the Da Nang Software Park.

The report was released last week by the National Steering Board for IT and the Vietnam IT Association.

At the bottom were Son La and Cao Bang provinces. Both are in the northern mountainous region.

Specifically, Da Nang ranks first in Vietnam for IT application and development, followed by HCM City and Hanoi. It ranks second in IT human resources, behind the Red River delta province of Vinh Phuc and ahead of HCM City.

Da Nang is the best in applying IT, followed by Dong Thap in the Mekong Delta and the northern port city of Hai Phong.

Hanoi, HCM City and Dong Nai earn the three top positions for IT business. Da Nang ranks fifth in this category.

In terms of IT organization and policy, Bac Giang, a northern province stood first, followed by the HCMC suburb of Binh Duong and Da Nang.

Among ministries and ministerial agencies, the Ministry of Education and Training climbed from second to first position, followed by the Ministry of Finance. The Ministry of Information and Communications jumped from eigth to third this year. Ironically, the Vietnam News Agency and the Vietnam Institute for Social Sciences are at the bottom.

According to this report, the IT application readiness index of ministries and ministerial agencies is generally higher than provinces and cities. Ninety percent of officials at ministries and central agencies can use computers compared to 76 percent of officials in provinces and cities.

Only 3.7 percent of ministries and central agencies have in-house IT experts, up 0.4 percent from 2009. All ministries have official websites, and so do all but one percent province.

Hai Chau