Viettel continues taking the lead

In the first six months of 2013, state-owned Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Group (VNPT) posted VND54.238 trillion ($2.3billion) in revenue whereas military-run Viettel Group earned VND72,638 trillion ($3.45 billion) in revenue.

ight in early 2013, while VNPT set forth its 2013 revenue target of more than VND131 trillion ($6.2 billion), Viettel placed out a much higher revenue figure in the range of VND160-170 trillion ($7.6-$8.1 billion).

These revenue levels were set based on these groups’ 2012 performance and development perspectives.

Accordingly, in 2012 Viettel reported VND140 trillion ($6.6 billion) in revenue and VND27 trillion ($1.28 billion) in profit whereas for VNPT the revenue and profit figures were VND130 trillion ($6.2 billion) and VND8.5 trillion ($405 million), respectively.

Last year was the first time Viettel surpassed VNPT in revenue level while its profit tripled that of VNPT.

VNPT’s chairman Pham Long Tran had attributed the group’s decreasing revenue to the hardships firms, particularly state-owned ones, were facing.

“Scores of firms counted losses or went bankrupt which cast a big dent on VNPT’s revenue. Besides, the fixed telephone network which was once the main income raising channel of the group, now takes a plunge in both subscriber number and revenue,”  Tran noted.

State inspectors’ conclusions about execution of state regulations on capital and asset usage and management at VNPT in the recent past had demonstrated a number of shortcomings and wrongdoings at the state group in this regard.

VNPT investments proved less effective, causing waste and losses whereas a number of financially dependent units under the state group exposed limitations in management, lacking self-reliance in doing business while having improver assessments about their business efficiency as well as capital and asset usage and management,  the report said.

Senior economist Dr. Nguyen Minh Phong from Hanoi Institute for Socioeconomic Development Study pointed our two core reasons for Viettel Group’s success: its dynamic leaders and the group’s pursing world-class management models.

About VNPT performance, Phong said: “VPNT needs to make more effective use of its core advantages, for instance its strong network infrastructure. Services diversification would help the state group recapture market slices from rivals.”