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Buu dien newspaper has quoted its sources as saying that relevant parties are discussing the plan to merge EVN Telecom into another state owned network. The “changing hands” will need to be completed by a government’s decision, because EVN Telecom and the other network are both state owned ones. This means that EVN Telecom will not be put on sale, but this means that the one who takes EVN Telecom will also have to take over the debts of EVN Telecom.
Analysts believe that recovering EVN Telecom from the current debts proves to be an impossible mission in the current situation of both--EVN, the holdings company, and EVN Telecom itself. If continuing keeping EVN Telecom, this would be a big waste of the State’s money and the national resources.
To date, most of telecom companies are state owned enterprises, therefore, merging EVN Telecom into another one seems to be a reasonable solution in the current circumstances.
In a recent statement, Dao Van Hung, Chair of EVN, also expressed EVN’s plan to withdraw investments from other business fields to focus on the power sector.
The withdrawal from EVN Telecom, in fact, was the scenario predicted by analysts more than one year ago. Meanwhile, analysts have commented that this is the best way for EVN to make “safe withdrawal” from the telecom market.
Who will take EVN Telecom?
To date, no final decision has been made about which network EVN Telecom would belong to. However, the military telecom company Viettel is the name that all people are thinking about.
Analysts also believe that it is highly possible that EVN Telecom will belong to Viettel, because Viettel is the only one which is capable enough to renew and assimilate EVN Telecom. Though Viettel is also a state owned enterprise, it is following a special management mechanism which has helped Viettel develop strongly to become the leader in the telecom market.
Not only experts and analysts, people also believe that merging into Viettel proves to be the best solution for EVN Telecom. Manh Ha, a reader, in an email sent to Buu dien newspaper, wrote that EVN is enjoying the monopoly in its field, while EVN does not have good telecom experts. Especially, telecom is a sector which is quite different from telecom. Therefore, it is understandable why EVN Telecom took big losses.
In fact, the state owned Vietnam Post and Telecommunication Group (VNPT) also proves to be a good candidate to take over EVN Telecom. However, people still believe that Viettel would be a better candidate, because Viettel has good business result and has good business strategy.
Especially, if Viettel takes over EVN Telecom, it would have more good opportunities to expand its business. In this case, Viettel will have the prefixes of 096-, 097- and 098- for its mobile phone subscriber numbers.
Meanwhile, a reader with the nickname Minh-Binh Tri Thien, said that Viettel can take full advantage of the “096”-prefix to develop. Especially, Viettel can also think of developing wireless fixed telecom services, the field where EVN Telecom is having great advantages.
Experts believe that withdrawing from EVN Telecom is a wise move of EVN. In the power sector, EVN can enjoy the monopoly, while telecom is a sector where rivals have to compete fiercely with each other. Therefore, EVN cannot get adapted to a new business environment.
In related news, the government has kicked off a state owned enterprise reform, under which it has requested state owned economic groups and general corporations to withdraw their investments from non-core sectors and focus their strength on main business fields
Buu Dien
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