HANOI, VIETNAM - August 5 2003 - The Linux Professional Institute (LPI) (www.lpi.org), the premier professional certification program for the international Linux community, has been invited by the Vietnamese Ministry of Science and Technology to offer certification exams 101 and 201.

To be held at the Foreign Trade University, Chua Lang St., Dong Da, Hanoi, Vietnam, Saturday, August 16/03 at 13:00, candidates must pre-register by clicking www.lpi.org/en/register.html to receive a LPI registration number before testing on-site.  The junior level administrator exams are to be offered at the discount price of $25. each.

"Vietnam is yet another country looking to open source as a way to close the technology gap," says LPI's president Evan Leibovitch. "Before and without open source, the gap in national technology capabilities and infrastructure between the developed and less-developed countries has been widening.  A healthy certified body of Linux professionals, in a country like Vietnam, clearly supports continued integration of the open source platform."

In addition to Vietnam, this year alone, LPI has offered exam labs in Brazil, China, Germany, Australia, USA, Canada, Japan and the United Kingdom.

"Proprietary software companies, some of which have been judged to be illegal monopolies, have been able to dictate proprietary file formats and network protocols. Such imposed standards, controlled by single vendors and deliberately hidden from competitors, stifles real competition and thus innovation. As a result, poorer countries, ironically, must import most of their information technology resources from richer countries, increasing dependence while inhibiting local alternatives."

LPI's mandate is to design and deliver a certification program from within the Linux community, using both volunteer and professional resources. LPI has delivered over 30,000 Level One and Level Two certification exams globally since the program's inception in just over two years.

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