According to foreign businesses who attended the International Telecommunications Conference in Hanoi, Vietnam’s telecom industry growth will make it an appealing market in the near future.

 

Over the past few years, Vietnam has experienced some of the highest growth in telecommunications, according to the International Telecommunication Union.

 

Telephone subscribers in the country hit 58 million by the end of May, including 48 million phone subscribers, representing a rate of 67 telephones per 100 people.

 

For 2008, Vietnam has had nearly 6 million Internet subscribers so far, and almost 19.5 million users. ADSL Internet subscribers have also increased in the past four years - in 2004, there were 50,000 subscribers and in April 2008, there were 1.5 million.

 

Head of Norway’s Telenor (News - Alert) Representative Office in Vietnam, Ola Ree, said the Vietnamese telecommunication market, mainly mobile phone business, is rapidly moving ahead, which is beyond his company’s expectation.

 

Telenor began its operation in Vietnam in 2005, and expects to become a strategic partner of one of the Vietnamese mobile phone businesses.

 

Ola Ree said Telenor is committed to participate in the local market as a strategic investor when state-owned mobile phone businesses are allowed to be equitised.

 

Chief Representative of France's Alcatel-Lucent (News - Alert) in Vietnam, Raoul Ros, said in recent years, Vietnam’s telecommunications industry has seen rapid growth compared to other regional countries, particularly mobile phone, broadband and fixed phone services.

 

Raoul added that although Vietnam is still in the early stage of World Trade Organization Admission, the country is seeing new market opportunities, and the telecommunication development for international integration has created more opportunities for telecom investors in Vietnam.

 

In addition to mobile phone service, Alcatel-Lucent is collaboration with Vietnamese partners in training human resources.