Hanoi, Vietnam, September 23, 2009 – Co-organized by the National Institute of Information and Communications Strategy (NIICS) and Frost & Sullivan, the Vietnam Telecoms Growth Conference 2009 kick-started today. Based on the theme –‘Maximizing growth opportunities in emerging markets’ – this is the first time a growthfocused conference for the Telecoms industry is being held in Vietnam.

 The two-day conference is endorsed by the Ministry of Information and Communications of Vietnam (MIC). Mr. Le Nam Thang, Standing Vice Minister from MIC Vietnam graced the conference as the gwuest-of-honor.

 In his address, he summarised the focus of the conference and highlighted that in recent years, telecommunications in Vietnam has quickly developed; Vietnam is one of the fastest-growing telecommunications markets in the world; Vietnam is speeding up the development of a modern, secure telecommunication infrastructure, which covers the whole country; with focus on the development of mobile and broadband communication; Despite the global economic crisis, the potential for telecommunication development in Vietnam is still very high. The Standing Vice Minister believed that the Vietnam Telecoms Growth Conference 2009 is an useful forum for those interested in the Vietnam telecommunication market and looking for successful investments in Vietnam.

 Following this, Ms. Le Thi Ngoc Mo, Deputy Director General, Department of Telecommunications at the Ministry of Information and Communications presented the keynote address on ‘The Policy and Regulatory Initiatives for Next Generation Telecoms in Vietnam’. In her address, she elaborated on the evolution of the republic’s regulatory environment, its present market opening policies, current competition amongst operators and licensing issues. She shared the nation’s plans, policies and priorities for future growth spuring further interest amongst potential investors.

Speaking on transforming the access network for an affordable broaband connectivity, Mr. Tran Quang Cuong, the Deputy Director General from the Department of Science and Technology at MIC highlighted the current status of broadband development in Vietnam as well as the assessment of development potentials of fixed and wireless broadband in Vietnam.

Aside from sharing the gold mine of opportunites available to investors in Vietnam, an entire spectrum of topics on monetizing the telecommunications growth were discusssed in the form of round-table tracks, panel discussions and presentations by a list of regional telecom thought-leaders. Senior executives from BT Global Services, Oracle, Mobizcom and Convergys shared their experiences on a range of issues including - rapid innovation and service monetization for Vietnam telecom operators, challenges facing Vietnam operators in a new “Real-time” relationship economy, redefining customer experience and capitalizing on new technology and delivering value-added services (VAS), amongst others.

Mr. Nitin Bhat, Senior Vice President of ICT practice at Frost & Sullivan, who co-chaired the 2-day conference, commented that the topics discussed are of utmost relevance to the current and prospective market conditions of the nation.

He adds, “Foreign investors are eager to engage in the Vietnamese telecommunications industry which remains as the last emerging market frontier in this region. Encouraging this sentiment is the current statistics that present a mix of over 70 percent mobile penetration, and under 5 percent household broadband penetration.” Mr. Nitin is confident that Vietnam offers immense opportunities for operators and vendors with innovative business models.

Following a successful wrap-up of day-one, the conference will step into the second day with a crispier agenda that will concentrate on the monetization opportunities of 3G rollout and the opportunities and challenges in the growing Vietnam’s telecom and broadband market.

For further details on the conference please visit www.frost-telecomvietnam.com.

Oracle Communications is the platinum sponsor, while Amdocs, Convergys and Teradata are the gold sponsors. BT Global is the lunch sponsor, while Extreme Networks and Qualcomm are partner sponsors for the conference.

The official newspaper partner is the Wall Street Journal Asia and PR Newswire is the official newswire for this conference. Media partners include ICTnews.vn, PC World, SPA Asia, Telecom & IT, Telecom Asia, The Vietnam Post, VTC 2, Wireless Asia and ZDNet Asia. Fixed-Mobile Convergence Alliance (FMCA) and Mobile Monday Vietnam are the supporting associations for the conference.

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About NIICS

National Institute of Information and Communications Strategy (NIICS) is a member unit of the Ministry of Information and Communications of Viet Nam (MIC). The main responsibilities of NIICS include conducting research, forecast and assessment of impacts on the following areas: socio-economic issues; science; technology; organization and management in posts, telecommunications, information technology, electronics, Internet, national information infrastructure, broadcasting, electronic information, press, publishing. In addition, NIICS plays a vital role in the recommendations required to assist the Minister implement a sound vision and strategy for MIC’s short-term and tong-term plans, policies, models and solutions to develop and support Viet Nam’s infrastructure to deliver world class information and communication services. NIICS regularly co-operates with local and international organizations to host numerous conferences and seminars to create more learning and networking opportunities for all professionals involved in industries it supports. For further details on NIICS, please visit: http://www.niics.gov.vn

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