The accreditation, which allows Mat Bao to provide full internet domain name registration services to local companies, was received 18 months after applying to ICANN, the HCM City – based firm said.

"It will also enable Mat Bao to help local firms solve domain name disputes and conflicts, which have been very difficult in the past as most of the ICANN's accredited registrars are located overseas," the company said in a statement.

In the past, most local firms and organisations' domain names conflicts with international counterparts were left unsettled or resulted in loss to foreign companies.

Mat Bao's general director Le Hai Binh said the company, which targets to see a 35 per cent growth rate this year, earned VND120 billion (US$5.71 million) in 2011, an increase of 38 per cent in 2010.

When a registrar registers a .com domain name for an end-user, it must pay a maximum annual fee of $7.85 to VeriSign, the registry operator, and a $0.18 annual administration fee to ICANN.

Most domain registrars price their services and products to address both the annual fees and the administration fees that must be paid to ICANN, based in Marina del Rey, California, the US.

According to the Viet Nam Internet Network Information Centre (VNNIC), the first three months of the year saw 22,000 new domain names registered, an increase of 22 per cent in comparison with the same period the last year.

The country now has 31 million internet users with 291,000 dot VN (.vn) domain names and 74,000 Vietnamese domain names.

Source:VNS