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VNPT told to plan restructuring
Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Bac Son has asked the Viet Nam Posts and Telecommunications Group (VNPT) to complete and submit its restructuring plan no later than the first quarter of this year.
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| Customers visit a VNPT booth at a trade fair in Ha Noi last November. VNPT has been ordered to submit its restructuring plan this quarter. |
The plan must adhere to guidance from the Government and Prime Minister, with priority given to developing VNPT's core business areas and avoiding haphazard investments, Son said.
The group should also accelerate the equitisation of any affiliates which did not require 100 per cent capital holdings by the State while divesting capital from its non-core business, he said.
Son also asked the VNPT to become a leading IT group which could take the initiative in manufacturing essential machines and equipment to gradually reduce imports.
Besides enhancing its presence in the domestic market, the group should also develop effective business strategies to exploit new opportunities in overseas markets in the time ahead, he said.
Meanwhile, it needed to ensure sufficient charter capital for its subsidiary, the Viet Nam Post Corp (VN Post), and soon submit a plan to separate VN Post as an independent unit to the Prime Minister for approval.
Top priority this year should be given to two important projects, the country's second telecommunications satellites (VINASAT-2) and the north-south submarine fibre optic cable line, he said.
Earlier, VNPT general director Vu Tuan Hung pledged to perfect the project to submit to the ministry next month.
Restructuring was considered an urgent task for the group in the current context, Hung said, adding that this idea had originated from within to meet its own needs rather than from a Government request.
According to statistics, the VNPT has invested in 85 joint-stock and liability-limited companies in the fields of posts and telecommunications, advertising, multimedia, finance, banking, design and tourism.
The group plans to withdraw VND2 trillion (US$95 million) in investment capital from non-core businesses deemed to be inefficient and costly.
In August, it began the process of divesting its investment capital in Maritime Bank by auctioning the buying rights of 25 million shares. The shares failed to sell which the group attributed to the current stock market downturn.
It recently withdrew capital from the VMG Communications Joint Stock Company to downsize its holdings from 36 to 29 per cent. It also reduced its holdings in the Sai Gon Postel JSC from 14.4 per cent to 11 per cent.
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