VietNamNet Bridge – Foreign investors are showing little
interest in the telecom market of Vietnam as it is said to have been saturated.
According to telecom experts,
foreign investors rushed to Vietnam several years ago in search for
opportunities for investment in the local telecom market, but now they are
standing aloof.
This is proven by the data of the
U.K.-based Business Monitor Intelligence (BMI). In the second quarter this
year, BMI lowered Vietnam’s telecom ratings to 42.5 points from 45 points one
year earlier.
A few years ago, many foreign
telecom firms set up their representative offices in Vietnam, such as France
Telecom, ST Telemedia, and Telenor. Now, the situation is different.
Telenor has shut down its
representative office and pulled out of Vietnam. Meanwhile, other telecom
companies barely make any move to enhance their presence and are no longer keen
on the local telecom market like before.
Recently, Vimpelcome, known for
the brand Beeline, has withdrawn from Vietnam, and SK Telecom has divested
capital from S-Fone.
ST Telemedia’s spokesman said the
company and other telecom firms worldwide are waiting for the equitization of
MobiFone to make investment in Vietnam. They have no intention to invest in a
new mobile network as the market is already saturated.
However, Vietnam Posts and
Telecommunications Group (VNPT) has suggested merger of MobiFone and VinaPhone,
rather than equitizing the former. Therefore, the fate of MobiFone is now
undecided.
A telecom expert said if the
proposal of VNPT got approved, foreign investors would be impacted. If
MobiFone, the first telecom firm planned for equitization, was not allowed to
go public, investors would have no other plans for doing business in Vietnam, and
would likely pull out of the local market to look for other destinations.
As per the White Book on IT and
Telecom released last Tuesday, in late 2011, the country witnessed the growth
in the number of cell phone subscribers slowing due to the market saturation,
staying at 14%, versus the average growth rate of 31.3% in the past five years.
As of last year’s end, there were 127.3 million mobile phone subscribers
nationwide.
VietNamNet/SGT
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