Foreign companies can now hold as much as 50 per cent in joint ventures with Vietnamese companies to provide telecoms service in the strictly controlled telecoms sector.Deputy minister of Post and Telematics, Mai Liem Truc, last week confirmed that under the bilateral trade agreement (BTA) between Vietnam and the US, foreign companies would be permitted to form joint ventures with local partners to provide value-added services from December 12, Internet services from late next year, and basic telecoms and mobile phone services from December 2005.