Viettel’s increasing role in developing ASEAN’s digital economy
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Over the past years, the Military-Run Telecommunications and Industry Group (Viettel) has contributed positively to the development of telecommunications infrastructure of five ASEAN member countries.
The fact is the 10 ASEAN countries had big gap in ICT development in the past. While some member countries, such as Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, had their developed ICT infrastructure systems, others, namely Cambodia, Laos, East Timor or Myanmar, still had their poor ICT infrastructure. In that circumstance, Viettel entered the latter telecommunication markets.
Metfone (Viettel’s subsidiary in Cambodia) has now become the largest telecommunication services provider in the market with its network covering 97% of the country’s area. Since Viettel invested in Laos, the country’s telecommunication infrastructure network has increased four times.
Since its presence in Myanmar, Mytel (Viettel’s brand in Myanmar) has helped popularize Internet services to people in this country. As for September 2019, 55% of the country’s population got access to the Internet, compared to only 31% in June 2018,.
Along with the development of the ICT infrastructure in these countries, Viettel created some 6,500 jobs for local people, trained local workers and transferred technology to its local partners, and improved the quality of the workforce of its four investment markets.
Viettel's investment in improving telecommunications infrastructure in the region has opened up the potential of dynamic development for the ASEAN countries. According to a study of Bain & Company, digital economy only accounts for 7% of ASEAN’s GDP in 2018. This figure was quite low, in comparison with 16% of China, 35% of the US, or 27% of the five EU countries, namely France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom.
In spite of the fact in 2019, according to AT Kearney, ASEAN may enter the list of the world’s five most developed digital economic regions by 2025. Far-sighted and serious digital economy development programs could contribute up to US$ 10 trillion to ASEAN's GDP in the next 10 years.
This illustrates the huge potential for the development of digital economy in ASEAN countries.
Viettel’s contributions to ASEAN countries’ socio-economic development and the bloc as a whole have demonstrated that Vietnam has gradually integrated in regional economy in an increasingly confident and proactive manner, in line with the Party’s foreign policy: Vietnam is a friend, a reliable partner and responsible member of the ASEAN Community in particular and the international community in general.
To date, Viettel has conducted 5G test calls in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, making these countries become ones of the earliest 5G testing countries in the world.
Furthermore, Viettel is now introducing digital solutions and running digital projects, such as e-government building, digital banking and financial applications and digital transformation for enterprises, which positively facilitates the building of digital economy and digital society in the country.
