Viettel holds on to telecoms lead

                                                                          Photo: Duc Anh

Military-run company led the way in revenue, profit and State budget contributions during the year, according to MIC.

The military-run Viettel continues to be No.1 in the local telecommunications and ICT industry with high revenue, profits and contributions to the State budget in 2016, according to the Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC).

Viettel is estimated to have earned VND226.5 trillion ($10.15 billion) in revenue in 2016, equal to 100 per cent of its annual plan, while pre-tax profit was VND43.2 trillion ($1.93 billion), or 101 per cent of its annual plan. It also contributed VND40.4 trillion ($1.8 billion) to the State budget. Compared with 2015, 2016 revenue increased VND3.8 trillion ($170 million) while profit fell VND2.6 trillion ($116 million). Return on equity was 34.1 per cent, equal to 100.4 per cent of the annual plan.

The military-run company had 7.4 million new subscribers as at the end of the year, bringing its total to 90 million, including 62.3 million domestic subscribers and 27.7 million overseas subscribers. The group’s nine international markets, which it has operated for over three years, earned profits. Peru and Burundi recorded profits after two years of operations, while Cameroon and Tanzania are yet to record profits after one and two years.

In its nine international markets, Viettel was No.1 in Laos, Cambodia, Timor Leste, Mozambique and Burundi. In Vietnam the group was fourth among telecom operators four years ago but is now the leading company, while it took three years, one year, and six months to lead the local market in Cambodia, Mozambique and Burundi, respectively. Annual growth in these markets is 20-30 per cent, ten-fold higher than the growth in the global telecommunications industry.

The group will move from a telecom services provider and become a technology enterprise, joining the global Top 20 in the process by 2030, its CEO has said.

“The group will not only provide telecom services and information communications and technology,” CEO Nguyen Manh Hung announced at Viettel Global’s tenth anniversary on December 17 in Hanoi. “It will also participate in researching and producing high technology equipment.”

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc told the anniversary ceremony that efficient overseas investment has become a dynamic and vital resource for Viettel’s development and such achievements have inspired and created confidence among Vietnamese enterprises to do likewise. “The fourth industrial revolution will create more opportunities as well as more challenges for Vietnamese enterprises, including Viettel,” he said, but he has faith in the group.

He went on to say that the group should be even more creative and play a key role in encouraging startups in ICT. He also expects it to stake out a presence in ten more international markets with a population totaling in the billions over the next decade.

by Do Huong