VietNamNet Bridge – The Army Telecom Corporation (Viettel), a subsidiary of the Ministry of Defence, has submitted a scheme to change itself from a corporation to an economic group to the government for approval.

The Prime Minister assigned Viettel to be one of two key firms, beside the Vietnam Post and Telecommunications Group (VNPT), to build the country’s information technology and telecommunications development strategies to 2010, 2015 and 2020, in order to turn Vietnam into a powerful country in this field.

Viettel explained that the change of model aims to give it more favourable conditions to raise capital. Moreover, if it was an economic group, it could invest in different fields and invest abroad.

According to Viettel, if it is allowed to become a group, it will have the fourth-largest revenue and the first return on equity among the eight state-owned economic groups in Vietnam.

The Prime Minister earlier permitted Viettel to become the first state-owned company to experimentally apply a salary policy based on business results.

This year, Viettel aims to earn 62 trillion billion dong ($3.44 billion) in revenue and install an additional 7000 to 8000 base transceiver stations, including 6000 3G stations, raising the total number to more than 25,000 in Vietnam. 

VietNamNet/ICTNews