Ambassador Michael W. Michalak

Remarks at the World Information Technology Forum (WITFOR) 

National Convention Center
8/27/2009
 
Mr. Chairman, Dr. Basie von Holms (President of International Federation of Information Processing, South Africa)
 
Ms. Victoria Kwakwa (Country Director for Vietnam, World Bank)
 
Colleagues, friends, ladies and gentlemen,
 
Xin kính chào các vị đại biểu,
Tôi rất vui mừng được có mặt tại đây hôm nay!

It’s a pleasure for me to be here today at the closing session of this impressive World Information Technology Forum to talk about public-private partnerships (PPPs). I am glad that we are addressing this topic during the last plenary session for two important reasons. First, some have called information and communications technology (ICT) “the infrastructure of infrastructure.” That is to say, in today’s global economy, information and communications technology permeates just about every value-adding undertaking imaginable. Whether it be farming, improving a business process, extending telecommunications access to rural areas or delivering a government service, ICT multiplies the impact of development in all other infrastructure areas, literally transforming lives and livelihoods. Unleashing the full impact and benefits of quickly emerging technologies will only be made possible by enlisting the expertise and interests of all stakeholders- from government, civil society and private enterprise alike.

The second reason I am glad that we are addressing public private partnerships at the end of WITFOR is because I hope that all of you delegates will remember how central PPPs are to achieving ICT development goals. If you remember nothing else from everything that has been said at WITFOR, I hope you walk away today with a renewed commitment to enlisting public private partnerships to reach your individual ICT development goals. 

As you will likely hear later from Victoria, the World Bank has defined partnerships as “a collaborative relationship towards mutually agreed objectives involving shared responsibility for outcomes, distinct accountabilities and reciprocal obligations.” Public private partnerships span a spectrum of models. At one end, PPPs can be as simple as private sector and civil society participation in the development of laws or regulatory frameworks. At the other end, PPPs actually involve the transfer to the private sector of services that traditionally were delivered or at least financed by the public sector. In all cases across this spectrum, PPPs are a cooperative venture between the public and private sectors, built on the expertise of each partner in order to best meet clearly defined public needs through the appropriate allocation of resources, risks and rewards. When done right, PPPs build in greater access, quality, efficiency, accountability and transparency in the delivery of public goods and services. 

On May 22nd of this year, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton addressed the Global Philanthropy Forum in Washington, DC on the subject of public private partnerships, noting the role that governments should play in PPP’s: 

“First, government can be a convener, bringing together people from across regions and sectors to work together on issues of common interest. Second, (government) can be a catalyst – launching new projects, actively seeking new solutions, providing vital training and technical assistance to facilitate additional projects. And third, government can be a collaborator, working closely with stakeholders to plan and implement projects – avoiding duplication, facilitating shared learning, and maximizing impact by looking for best practices.” 

In recognition of these governmental imperatives in the PPP process, the Vietnam Ministry of Information and Communication and the U.S. Department of Commerce launched the Vietnam- U.S. ICT Commercial Dialogue in September 2007 with the purpose of accelerating ICT development by stimulating trade and investment between our countries in ICT sectors. The underlying goal of the Dialogue is to coordinate the resources and expertise of the U.S. private sector and various U.S. agencies- including USAID- toward priority issues in the Vietnam ICT sector, with the belief that focusing on the long term challenges in Vietnam’s ICT infrastructure development and sharing best practices will help lay a solid foundation for trade and investment across all sectors in Vietnam. 

As you might guess, several of the core areas being discussed at WITFOR are also addressed under the Dialogue, including IT training and skills development, telecommunications access, e-government, network security and administrative reform through the application of ICT. The U.S. and Vietnamese private sectors and academia work with our governments to shape the agenda and collaborate with us to organize a variety of deliverables that are already yielding important results.

In one recent example, U.S. industry had the opportunity to hold an open discussion with the Ministry of Information and Communications about the draft Telecommunications Law that will be submitted to the National Assembly later this year. This legislation represents a major overhaul of the framework for regulating telecommunications services and sets the stage for Vietnam to become fully compliant with its WTO telecommunications obligations. The seminar gave the Ministry the opportunity to clarify its policy direction to major technology providers, while the U.S. companies were able to convey their ideas on best practices directly to the Ministry. This cooperative event was made possible because the Vietnamese and U.S. Governments agreed on the importance of exchanging views and information on telecommunications development.

In another example, USAID, in partnership with the Vietnam Telecommunications Service Fund (VTF), VNPT and Intel, piloted a telecommunications community access solution in Ta Van village in Lao Cai province, using the latest wireless broadband technologies. The technical assistance support provided through this and related projects has resulted in VTF collecting and distributing roughly $130 million in the last two years to build out the country’s rural telecommunications network. More importantly, VTF now has a process in place to collect and effectively distribute more than $70 million annually to support rural telecommunications development throughout the entire country.

On the trade facilitation front, Vietnam Customs, together with the U.S. Trade and Development Agency, the National Center for APEC, the Conference of Asia-Pacific Air Express Carriers (CAPEC), FedEx and Unisys Corporation, recently developed and implemented an Air-Express e-Manifest System pilot project at Vietnam’s two largest airports in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. Through the pilot, Vietnam Customs built in the capability to transfer manifest information into and out of Vietnam in near real-time, enabling them to significantly reduce processing times for express packages. While the e-manifest project has enabled Vietnam Customs to make its own internal processes more efficient-- such as enabling personnel to more accurately assess shipment values, apply appropriate tariffs and detect contraband, the real benefits will be felt throughout the Vietnamese economy. Improvements in delivery times will be a significant boon to SME and large importer and exporters, whose cash flows and customer bases will grow as a result of the increased efficiency and transparency. 

Building on this success, Vietnam Customs, with support from several private and public sector partners, including USAID, is now in the process of creating its own National Single Window to facilitate international and regional trade. State-of-the-art IT solutions will allow traders to submit information to Vietnam Customs and other ministries in an ASP (read A.S.P.) internet application. Seamless transfer and submission of Customs related documents will help Vietnam process larger cargo volumes more efficiently, reduce costs, improve collections and add transparency and accountability to the customs clearance process. By leveraging the expertise of private sector players in the enterprise software and express delivery industries, Vietnam Customs is demonstrating that improving its own processes will serve as a further catalyst to continued economic growth.

With regards to ICT education development, in late 2007, I launched the U.S. Embassy Education Initiative in support of Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung’s call to improve education in Vietnam and to educate increasing numbers of Vietnamese abroad. Our first Initiative activity was to bring together U.S. companies, educators and other stakeholders to assess the education needs of those investing in and doing business in Vietnam. Far and away, the greatest need identified by the stakeholders was development of local IT human resource capacity. In response to this need we have spearheaded a number of PPP initiatives including the creation of the U.S. Vietnam Education Task Force and the formation of an Academic Advisory Group under the ICT Commercial Dialogue.

For its part, the Vietnamese Government, the Ministry of Education and Training and the Ministry of Information and Communications are leveraging private sector partners to improve IT curriculums at national universities. For instance, through curriculum provided under Oracle’s Academy Initiative, thousands of Vietnamese undergraduates are preparing themselves to fill key technical jobs in the global knowledge economy, including software developers, database administrators, business analysts and systems designers. MIC is also working with the U.S.’s largest provider of IT certification curricula- CompTIA (read Comp T.I.A.)- to implement certification programs at IT schools in large and secondary cities throughout Vietnam.

Equally important, the Government of Vietnam has created an environment where private universities can also enter the field to meet the growing demand for ICT education. Already, a number of private universities are offering Computer Science majors based on the curricula of some of the best IT universities in the U.S., including Carnegie Mellon University. Other Vietnamese private universities are also emerging, including the Tan Tao University, which will initially focus on educating information technology graduates by hiring world class IT professors from around the world to teach Vietnam’s best and brightest. 

In closing, these are just a few of the key areas (legal development, customs and trade, IT education, telecommunications access) in which joint U.S.- Vietnam PPPs are yielding measurable results in support of ICT development in Vietnam. The USG is pleased to be working so closely with the Government of Vietnam and with the private sectors of both our countries to help accomplish Vietnam’s ICT goals. Certainly there is much more to be done, but with the Vietnam-ICT Commercial Dialogue and an established pattern of close cooperation, the operating framework is in place to leverage PPPs for even more dramatic ICT growth in Vietnam. We look forward to building on these successes as Vietnam continues its dramatic economic growth.

Xin cảm ơn!