Vietnam inches towards telecoms deregulation
HO CHI MINH CITY - Vietnam will loosen some control over its tightly regulated telecommunications services from 1999 to
allow direct foreign participation through joint ventures, a
senior official said on Wednesday.
Le Nam Thang, head of the policy department at the
Directorate General of Posts and Telecommunications
(DGPT), said all companies, except 100 percent
foreign-owned firms, would be permitted to apply to buy
surplus telecoms capacity from state providers for
resale.
``The DGPT will define the list (of services) and initially,
fixed line telecom services will be the first priority,''
Thang told an industry seminar in southern Ho Chi Minh
City, Vietnam's commercial hub. The DGPT is the
government's telecoms regulatory body.
``We plan to launch telecom retailing in 1999 but the
DGPT needs to develop a list of services and
provisions,'' he said.
Firms would be able to install systems and then lease
lines from the state to link up with the national network,
he said.
Vietnam has experienced massive telecoms growth in
recent years but its telephone density remains low at
around 2.3 per 100 people, official figures show.
The communist country has introduced partial
competition to its telecommunications sector, which is
overwhelmingly controlled by state-owned Vietnam
Posts and Telecommunications.
Thang said in the last year the DGPT had licensed
majority state-owned Saigon Postel and the
military-owned Vietel to set up mobile and wireless local
loop networks to provide services nationwide.
The DGPT would stop setting fixed telecoms tariffs in
favour of tariff bands, Thang said.
``Retailers will be allowed to purchase or lease capacity
from the providers and resell to users within the
regulated range of tariffs,'' he added.
Foreign telecoms executives welcomed the move but
said it was too early to say whether lucrative
international services, long distance calls or the Internet
would be open for investment.
Foreign investors have long sought a direct slice of the
communist country's telecommunications cake, but to
date have been restricted to business cooperation
contracts (BCCs).
These contracts are normally short-term and offer limited
management rights in return for a revenue share but no
equity.
Britain's Cable & Wireless, France Telecom, Japan's
Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp and Korea
Telecom have won deals to install telephone lines in
Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and around the northern port
city of Haiphong.
Australia's Telstra has held BCCs to develop
international telecommunications since 1986 and hopes
to seal another in early 1999 to install lines in Ho Chi
Minh City.
Comvik International Vietnam AB, which has Swedish
interests, has invested in developing Vietnam's first
national GSM mobile network while Singapore Telecom
has a BCC for an analogue mobile system in the former
Saigon.
Reuters - November 18, 1998.
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