Vietnam goes "100 per cent open source" by 2010

Vietnam's government is going "100 per cent open source". VietnamNet Bridge reports that the Vietnam Ministry of Information and Communications has set out an aggressive policy to go "100 per cent open source" by December 31st 2010.

The list of prescribed software includes the OpenOffice office suite, Mozilla Firefox and Thunderbird and Vietnamese typing software Unikey. From the report it isn't clear if open source operating systems or server applications are being mandated by the government, or if the instruction solely refers to desktop applications.

The programme starts with the IT departments of government ministries, who have been told that by June 30th, 2009, they will have to have 100 per cent of their servers working with open source software and all staff must be trained in the use of that software. The policy gives a little breathing space saying "and at least 50 per cent to be able to use them proficiently".

By the end of 2009, the goal is to have 70 per cent of all official servers and 70 per cent of IT staff working with open source software. By the 2010 deadline, all staff, not just IT staff, will be required to work with open source software.

Vietnam has been developing a government IT policy since 2004, when a policy of developing open source expertise and deploying pilot projects was instituted. That policy ran to the end of 2008 and the new policy appears to build on that developed expertise.

(djwm)