Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has urged the Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC) to exert a greater effort to provide a more favorable legal climate for its sector to develop strongly and sustainably.

He also asked the ministry to quicken the completion of a project to turn Vietnam into an international power in the field of IT.

The government leader emphasized the urgent need to build mechanisms and policies to facilitate human IT resources training, manufacturing, and infrastructure construction. He said attention should also be paid to the application of IT in state management and the building of national IT and telecommunications groups that are capable of penetrating the global market.

PM Dung requested that the ministry boost the progress of IT application in localities to support administrative reform and promote transparency. He highlighted the government’s policy to encourage the use of electronic documents (instead of conventional paper), and video conferences as cost-saving and ecological measures as well as the creation of online socio-economic services in education, consultancy, medical diagnosis and treatment, and commerce.

Addressing the 2010 conference of the MIC in Hanoi on January 15, Mr Dung praised the IT sector for having played an important role in helping the country weather the socio-economic difficulties of 2009.

He said that last year the sector strived to maintain its high growth rate, modernize IT and telecommunications infrastructure, devise more laws and policies for its development and enhance state management in the field.

Press and publishing agencies also actively disseminated information about measures to curb inflation, stabilize the macro-economy and ensure social security, according to Mr Dung.

PM Dung asked the MIC to cooperate with press agencies to fully inform people of the state’s policies in a timely and responsible manner, and requested that the media refute erroneous arguments, serve as a forum for people and act in the interests of the nation.

(VOV)