Vietnam working on expanding broadband availability in country

The tiny country of Vietnam has plans to internet access available to 35 percent of its population by 2010. This information was revealed to the media by a telecom official who said in a statement: “We want more and more people to access the Internet. It’s an ambitious plan but we will do our best to realize it.”

The country has at the moment around 10 million Internet users. This means that just around 12% of the country’s population has internet access available to them. The plan has been approved by Prime Minister Phan Van Khai earlier in February and would require up to 100.5 trillion dong in investment.

The telecom ministry plans to use this money to promote fixed and mobile phone networks, Internet use and telecom development in rural areas. The telecom sector in the country is growing fast and is expected to see a boom considering the country is gaining entry into the World Trade Organization.