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Central Government, Technology

Vietnam makes cost savings via video-conferencing

By Alice Kok | 23 March 2009

Vietnam’s Government Office announced last week that the Chairmen of provincial-level people’s committees will attend the government’s socio-economic discussions via videoconferencing systems from late this month.

The use of video-conferencing for government workers promises significant savings for state coffers. Vietnam’s Government Office announced last week that the Chairmen of provincial-level people’s committees will attend the government’s socio-economic discussions via videoconferencing systems from late this month.

This will realise the e-government targets of saving time and money and improving the efficiency of government operations. Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung asked the Vietnam Post and Telecommunication Group (VNPT) to install videoconferencing equipment in offices of people’s committees across the country.

The system is ready in all 63 cities and provinces, allowing representatives of the most remote areas to attend video conferences with no differences in quality from their counterparts in major cities.

“Videoconferencing can result in huge cost savings, up to billions of dong per year in the case of the educational sector,” said Quach Tuan Ngoc, head of the Ministry of Education and Training’s IT Department.

Savings however will vary among different organisations and the number of meetings. Investments in videoconferencing are calculated to enable cost savings only if the organisation holds over 15 videoconferences each year, the distance between the most remote attendees is over 300 kilometres, and the number of attendees for each meeting is at least 300 people.

“Organisations that hold videoconferences on a less regular basis should rent the complete service including network connection, equipment and even meeting points from service provider rather investing in their own system,” Ngoc said.

Nguyen Minh Hong, Deputy Minister of Information and Communications, added: “We will conduct further research to instruct government bodies on how to invest in and organise videoconferences.”

Duc said VNPT had prepared all necessary commercial services for video-conferencing to serve state and private organisations with different demands.

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