 An estimated 10,000 people in rural areas
of three provinces will have better access to the internet with the
implementation of a US$2.1 million project supported by the Bill and
Melinda Gates Foundation.Work on the project was
kicked off by the Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC) on
Monday. It is hoped better internet access could help farmers.
"Bringing internet to rural
areas will be of great importance to help erase the gap between these
areas and urban areas, as well as help changing the life of people
living here," said Deputy Minister of MIC Tran Duc Lai.
This project, along with
other programmes of the Government to bring IT to rural areas, aims to
help eliminate factors which contribute to poverty.
"Internet will help people
in these areas heighten their knowledge and create chances for them to
look for employment and vocational training, through which their lives
can be improved," said Lai. Within the project’s framework, 705
computers will be provided to commune offices, public libraries, school
libraries and hospitals in Thai Nguyen, Nghe An and Tra Vinh provinces.
Human resources and telecommunications infrastructures will be provided
by the Viet Nam Telecommunications Fund (VTF).
A kick-start
Bringing the internet to
rural areas is not a new idea. MIC has launched several similar
projects with the hope to increase information access for rural
residents in the past few years. However, these projects’ efficiency
have not met expectations.
"Previous projects on
bringing internet to rural areas have just been able to act as a
kick-start and have not gained high application among people in rural
areas, most of whom are farmers," said Nguyen Mau Lan, former vice head
of the Rural Areas Telecommunications Board of the Viet Nam Post and
Telecommunications Group. (The Board was dissolved in 2008).
He said this was probably
because farmers did not see an application for using the internet to
their lives, as most of them only engage in small-scale farming.
"It’s like a dreamy story
when we try to bring internet to farmers, while they are only working
on their small field of rice," Lan said.
"The internet will only be
effective once agriculture production is carried out to produce goods
to sell on the market, rather than just subsistence farming," he said.
Lan supported this
statement by citing the example of farmers growing Nam Roi grapefruit
in the Mekong Delta area and dragon fruit in Binh Thuan Province, who
successfully use the internet to seek out new trade opportunities with
other markets.
Lan also said that there needs to be more and better content for farmers to access in Vietnamese on the internet.
"The demand for the right
information of farmers has not been met. Thus, to help erase the
information gap, it does not only require the effort of internet
provider, but also of relevant bodies like the Ministry of Agriculture
and Rural Development," he said.
Hoang Sy Tuan, head of the
Information Technology Unit of Department of Agriculture and Rural
Development of Thanh Hoa Province, said another challenge was that
farmers are remaining passive in the process. No one has convinced them
as to how the internet could be beneficial to their lives, so there is
no buy-in.
This is true for Phan Van
Viet, 44, a resident of Dam Village in Luc Ngan District of Bac Giang
Province. Viet, who has a 2ha litchi plantation, said: "I have heard
about internet, but I don’t think I need it for anything. I’ve been
growing litchi for all my life, what do I use internet for?" He added
that no one in his village was using the internet.
The new project supported
by the Bill & Melinda Foundation has plans to try and solve these
barriers to internet usage and access.
Training courses for rural
residents will be held at places with internet access. Local government
staff will also be attending these courses. It is expected 10,000
people will attend these trainings, and it is hoped that these people
will be influential and transfer their learned skills to others.
Mass media will be used to communicate how the internet can be a useful tool and improve people’s lives.
Websites with appropriate
content will be developed by ministries, such as the ministries of
Health, Agriculture and Rural Development, to provide necessary
information to people.
"These are quite new and
advanced features compared to other previous projects, which mostly
focus on technology," said deputy minister Tran Duc Lai.
With such advances, the
project was expected to help people learn more, increase their income,
their productivity, thus, improve their lives in many ways, said
Deborah Jacobs, director of the Bill and Melinda Gates Global Libraries
Programme.
VietNamNet/Viet Nam News
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