Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has reiterated Vietnam’s policy that considers information technology and communications as its most important tool and the spearhead economic sector to implement the country’s Millennium Development Goals (MDG).

The PM also told heads of delegations to the 2009 World Information Technology Forum at a reception in Hanoi before the opening the event in Hanoi on Aug. 26 that the country intends to create an information-led society and shorten the timescale of the nation’s industrialisation and modernisation process.

He went on to say that the Vietnamese Government highly appreciates the International Federation of Information Processing’s initiative to organise the forum which aims to enhance cooperation and increase assistance to developing nations and promote the application of IT in socio-economic fields.

PM Dung said the theme of the forum, “ICT for Sustainable Development”, is practical and important and it will assist in the implementation of the MDGs set by the United Nations and the Information Society’s master plan.

The Vietnamese Government has issued a number of measures and policies and focused its resources on IT development, said PM Dung, noting that the nation has recorded a high IT growth rate. “ Vietnam ’s IT and communications sector achieved a turnover of more than 10 billion USD in 2008 while the rate of Internet users has risen to around 25 percent,” he said.

Vietnam is building a strategy to become a strong IT nation, said the PM.

“Vietnam thanks the international community and overseas countries for their assistance and cooperation and we hope to learn from our international friends at this forum”, he said./.