Vietnam promises 'favorable conditions' for Internet firms

Dung said in a statement recently posted on the government’s news website that the goal is to increase the country's Internet usage rate to above 90% of the population, on par with the current rates in developed countries.

No timeframe has been given in the statement, which marked 18 years after Vietnam was first connected to the Internet. 

At the end of 2014, Vietnam had nearly 45 million Internet users, or more than 49% of the population, which was higher than the global rate of 40.4% and the 32.4 % rate of the Asia-Pacific region, Dung said.

The government has launched its own Facebook fanpage, but called on the public to be careful with negative social impacts from using the network.

“The government will provide special support for students and people in rural, mountainous, border and island areas to access to the Internet through deployment of a series of programs and projects,” he said.

“Vietnam opens its door and creates favorable conditions for both domestic and foreign information technology and Internet companies to do business in the country,” he said, naming Google, Facebook and Twitter as examples. 

The government’s news website launched its Facebook page last month. 

But Dung also mentioned some “negative” sides of the Internet environment such as he violations of intellectual property rights, cyberattacks and information fabrication for slandering and terrorism purposes.

He said the Internet should be "clean and pure" and serves a tool to ensure democracy, human rights and civil rights “in a progressive, law-governed state.”

“I called on all people to act as the citizens with high sense of responsibility when using social network in particular and the Internet in general. Information, images and data should be uploaded responsibly and shared with high sense of responsibility,” he said.