Viettel Group is a strong brand name and it needs to continue to maintain its leading position in Vietnam’s telecommunication industry and high ranking in the Southeast Asian region as well as Asia.

National Assembly (NA) chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan made the statement during a visit to Viettel on Thursday.

Recognising and appreciating the achievements of Viettel, she emphasised that these results have confirmed the important role of State-owned enterprises in the socialist-oriented market economy in Vietnam.

Viettel is a Vietnamese brand known not only in the country but also around the world. As an economic spearhead, Viettel has been contributing to the nation.

Viettel operates in Cambodia through its subsidiary Viettel (Cambodia) Pte Ltd under the brand name Metfone.

Ngan said: “Viettel needs to continue focusing on research and production activities and become the centre of the hi-tech defence industry complex, laying the foundation for our country to be able to own high-tech equipment and weapons.”

The chairwoman said Viettel should strengthen its pioneering role in creating digital life and digital society in Vietnam. This is both a requirement and the responsibility of the corporation in the role of a technology-leading enterprise.

Viettel has built a digital infrastructure and important solutions for the government, the NA, ministries and sectors in many important socio-economic fields.

Ngan added: “Viettel needs to continue promoting its pioneering role in creating digital life and digital society in Vietnam, building Vietnam with a digital economy and managing the country with digital technology.”

After 30 years of development, Viettel has continuously grown and become one of the economic spearheads, combining defence-security tasks with socio-economic development, as well as creating jobs. It has been an innovative and effective State-owned enterprise.

Last year, the group’s revenue reached 251.5 trillion dong ($10.8 billion), increasing 4,700-fold from 2000. It posted pre-tax profit of 39.4 trillion dong, a 27,000-fold jump from 2000. Viettel contributed 38 trillion dong to the State budget last year.

In its five-year period of 2015-2020, Viettel achieved revenue of 1.23 quadrillion dong and profit of 200 trillion, contributing 195 trillion to the State budget.

Viettel has been the most valuable brand in Vietnam and also the leading position in Southeast Asia and ninth in Asia. It took the 28th position out of the world’s 150 most valuable telecoms with a brand value of $5.8 billion.

When joining the telecommunication market, Viettel created opportunities for everyone to have a mobile phone. It created an explosion of broadband internet thanks to 4G coverage of up to 97 per cent of the population.

Viettel has become the largest network operator in Vietnam with 65 million mobile subscribers, accounting for 54 per cent market share and 5.8 million optical cable internet subscribers, accounting for 41.5 per cent of market share.

It has a super wide band network with 360,000km of fibre optic cable to most districts and communes; 120,000 base-transceiver stations (BTSs); five storage centres following international standards, leading the data centre market.

Viettel’s overseas investment has also prospered after 14 years. It takes the lead in some foreign markets such as Cambodia, Laos, Timor, Burundi, Mozambique and second position in Haiti.

According to the evaluation of the Global System for Mobile Communications Association (GSMA), Viettel is in the Top 20 largest telecom companies having overseas investment in the world in terms of subscribers with more than 50 million customers.

Viettel has researched, produced and mastered telecom infrastructure, helping ensure information safety and security for Viettel and the nation’s network. From last year, Viettel has focused resources to research and develop 5G BTSs and 5G chip production.

VIET NAM NEWS/ASIA NEWS NETWORK