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Organized under the auspices of InWEnt - Capacity Building International of Germany, INRIA of France and Institute of Information and Technology (ITOT) of Vietnam, the event is carried out by the initiative FOSS-Bridge EU-Vietnam (www.foss-bridge.org).

The week long event gathers Vietnamese and visiting European software companies, who all share a keen interest in Open Source. Apart from offering a platform for face-to-face meetings and exchanging of cooperation ideas, which eventually turn into business agreements, the workshop also focuses on providing technology training offered by eight European IT-companies to their Vietnamese counterparts.

In a first round of twinning in l last November, over 42 deals of joint Vietnamese – European cooperation were initiated, such as between CMC Soft of Vietnam and Bull France and Belgium; Vietsoftware and Yerbabuena, Spain; iWay and OTRS, Germany. More deals are expected to be finalized in the coming days with new companies from Europe and Vietnam participating in FOSS Bridge for the first time.

“Cooperation between Vietnamese and European companies in FOSS is a win-win situation. This is because both sides will profit from the mutual partnership. European companies can access a potential market, and a country with continued high GDP growth. Vietnamese companies will have more possibilities and technology options by teaming up with European partners“, said Dao Tam Quoc Joseph from Papaya Software GmbH Germany, one of the companies present at the workshop.

“I think going for open source is a good choice for Vietnam at the moment. Many European countries have applied FOSS in their public and business activities and they have the practical experience. More importantly, they have the willingness to cooperate with us on capacity building and knowledge transfer, of which this workshop is a proven example of their commitment.” added Le Vinh Chien, Head of Research and Development Division of HueSoft from central Vietnam.

The main goal of “FOSS-Bridge EU-Vietnam” is to develop business partnerships between software players in Vietnam and Europe. Cooperation is based on the innovative model of “Free and Open Source Software” (FOSS), which fosters open cooperation and joint building of software code worldwide. For that, each company from Vietnam is twinned with a counterpart from Europe for joint projects - increasing knowledge base and cooperation of the partners. Financial support comes from the Asia-Invest programme of the European Commission and the German Federal Ministry of Economic Development and Cooperation (BMZ). The main networking partners are OW2, a leading middle-ware consortium in the field of FOSS and Cenatic of Spain.

“I have come here to first find buyers who would be able to buy our FOSS products. At the same time, we expect to find partners who can sell and provide services from Vietnam. Based on what I have seen today in the presentation from very well-known and established Vietnamese companies, I believe the objective of my trip will be fulfilled”, said Sergio Montoro Ten, CEO of KnowGate from Spain.

In 2003, Vietnam decided to switch its IT infrastructure to Free and Open Source Software. In 2008, Vietnam’s Communist Party plans to switch its 20,000 desktop computers nationwide to open-source avoiding problems with copyright infringement. State agencies, such as Ho Chi Minh City's departments of trade, post and telecommunications, and science and technology have already used OpenOffice on a trial basis. Therefore, demand for expertise in the field of FOSS development and implementation is expectedly high and still increasing in the coming years.

(Source: Vietnamnet)
(Source: CPV)