Great opportunity for Viettel to reach new heights of development

On the afternoon of October 18, Minister Nguyen Manh Hung chaired a working session of the Ministry of Information and Communications with leaders and key officials of the Viettel Military Industry and Telecommunications Group. Also attending were Deputy Ministers Phan Tam, Pham Duc Long, Bui Hoang Phuong and leaders of several units under the Ministry of Information and Communications.

Emphasizing the great mission of the country's three main telecommunications enterprises, the head of the information and communications industry pointed out: Digital transformation is the main path for Vietnam to develop. The Party has identified digital transformation as the main driving force for national development, and digital infrastructure is a strategic infrastructure, on par with transportation and electricity infrastructure.

If the three major telecommunications enterprises do not develop, the information and communications industry will not develop, and if so, the country will find it difficult to complete the two hundred-year goals. With this awareness, from mid-September until now, the Ministry of Information and Communications has worked with leaders and key officials of VNPT, MobiFone, and Viettel to suggest directions and approaches as well as accompany and support businesses in removing obstacles.

According to Minister Nguyen Manh Hung, after three 10-year cycles of Viettel always leading in the fields of construction, telecommunications and industry, the generation of leaders 'shouldering' the responsibility in the fourth stage - 10 years of technology, needs to focus on doing well the leading mission, the national mission to contribute to building the industry and the country. This is a great opportunity for Viettel to reach a new level of development. "The goal of the current generation of leaders is to surpass the previous generation" , the Minister requested.

Sharing the new awareness from the business trip to Finland that it is possible to 'turn a rich country into one's backyard', the head of the IT&T industry suggested that Viettel's leaders and key staff change their thinking and way of doing things. That is, to find difficult and big problems and solve them with global strength, through cooperation with developed countries.

From analyzing the major viewpoints in the article of General Secretary and President To Lam on the occasion of the 79th anniversary of National Day September 2 and the Resolution on digital transformation that is about to be considered and issued by the Politburo, Minister Nguyen Manh Hung has reflected and mapped on Viettel's work to orient and outline a series of requirements for the group's operations in the coming period.

That is, Viettel's goals must at least be in line with the country's. Specifically, the group should aim to be in the top 30 or 40 global digital technology enterprises; Viettel needs to double the spending ratio on investment in digital infrastructure development and digital technology research; the ratio of staff in digital transformation, science and technology, and innovation needs to account for 50% for technology units and 30% for non-technology units.

Besides noting that Viettel's Board of Directors should consider evaluating, promoting, and rewarding the heads of the group's leading units in digital transformation, Minister Nguyen Manh Hung also said that the group's leaders and the Ministry's departments and offices all need to follow the example of General Secretary and President To Lam, who directly directed the implementation of a digital transformation project - Project 06 when he was the head of the Public Security sector.

At the same time, Viettel is also required to transform its internal digitalization first, use digital technology in all activities of the group, take the lead in applying AI; change internal operating mechanisms such as salary, delegation of authority, staff evaluation, supervision... to free up resources, thereby creating great development.

Innovate revenue and profit structure, push the proportion of revenue from telecommunications down to below 30% to ensure sustainable development; master core technologies such as 5G, semiconductor chips, AI, Cloud. "Viettel is at the top, so it must set the goal of mastering those technologies. If we do not set high goals, the apparatus will be sluggish," Minister Nguyen Manh Hung reminded.

Moving strongly to new development space

At the meeting, Chairman and General Director of Viettel Tao Duc Thang reported on the group's production and business results in the first 9 months of the year and the group's tasks for the fourth quarter of 2024; and made recommendations to the Ministry of Information and Communications, such as: Early auction of the right to use radio frequencies with the 700MHz band so that businesses can continue to cover remote areas, advising the Government on a strategy to deploy low-altitude satellite Internet services in Vietnam, removing difficulties in installing new BTS stations near residential areas due to complaints from residents, advising on how to resolve problems in investing in submarine optical cable lines owned by Vietnam...

The above recommendations and concerns of Viettel leaders and key officials were answered by Minister Nguyen Manh Hung and assigned to departments and offices to support businesses in resolving them. For example, the two departments of Telecommunications and Radio Frequency were directed to closely monitor and speed up the work so that the low frequency of 700MHz can be auctioned by early January 2025.

Regarding the difficulties in installing BTS stations, the Ministry of Information and Communications will ask the police force to support infrastructure development; in the immediate future, the Ministry will work with Hanoi to discuss solutions for 200 locations in the city that are heavily complained about and cannot install stations.

In response to concerns about whether it is necessary to set a common mission for the entire corporation since each unit of Viettel has a mission, Minister Nguyen Manh Hung explained: A large corporation must have both common and individual things. Viettel is now multi-industry and multi-profession, so the mission must be more general, for example, technology for people, then down to each field, each unit has its own mission; but whatever is done, it must be based on technology, technology must be excellent, advanced and technology must serve people, creating development.

Acknowledging and appreciating Viettel's results and contributions to the industry, the leaders of the Ministry of Information and Communications and the heads of the Ministry's departments and offices all expect the group to be aware of its role as a leading enterprise, thereby setting higher goals and volunteering to take on major national problems.

Pointing out that Viettel needs to look further because it is a leading enterprise, Minister Nguyen Manh Hung hopes that this group will boldly invest in 5G coverage as it did very strongly with the 4G network in the previous phase, thereby promoting other network operators to develop this important infrastructure to serve the country's digital transformation.

The three Deputy Ministers Phan Tam, Pham Duc Long, Bui Hoang Phuong and leaders of the units of the Ministry of Information and Communications all hope that in the coming time, Viettel will focus on doing strategic, large-scale, national-level tasks such as: Highly focused, setting high goals and having more excellent solutions to strongly shift to new development spaces, digital spaces, digital transformation;

Focus on developing a project to invest in a small-scale, high-tech semiconductor chip manufacturing factory to serve the research and production needs of semiconductor chips; participate in popularizing personal digital signatures by providing digital signatures to all of its subscribers; invest in developing a smart industrial production platform; accept solutions to major national problems such as the project on AI doctors...

Believing that it is time for Viettel to reach a new level, the head of the IT&T industry analyzed: Instead of competing with other businesses, the group needs to develop platforms for other units to "stand on its back", doing things that both lead the country, generate a lot of revenue, and ensure sustainable development.

“The Ministry of Information and Communications always considers businesses in the industry as family members, in the same IT-TT sector, and always wants businesses to develop. Businesses are the objects of service of the Ministry, so the busier businesses make the Ministry, the more the Ministry will develop,” Minister Nguyen Manh Hung affirmed.

Vietnam's digital infrastructure must be sufficient and universal to develop the digital economy . To develop the digital economy, there must be digital infrastructure. Digital infrastructure includes both hard and soft infrastructure. Infrastructure is the foundation for development. The foundation must be sufficient and universal.