The statement was made by Information and Communication Deputy Minister Le Nam Thang at the opening of the first Vietnam Telecoms Growth Conference in Hanoi on September 23.

Despite the negative impact of the global economic recession, Vietnam remains one of the few countries in the Asia-Pacific region to achieve a high growth rate in telecoms development.

Together with increasing foreign investment in the telecoms sector, especially from multi-national groups, the Government is trying to improve related legislation to ensure the sector’s sustainable development, Thang said.

Nitin Bhat, Vice Senior President for the Information Communications Technology (ICT) Practice at the company Frost and Sullivan, who is also the conference’s chair, spoke highly of developments in Vietnam ’s telecoms sector, adding that foreign investors are eager to get involved in this market. He said he hoped that Vietnam’s telecoms market will offer more opportunities for developers and equipment suppliers.

Participants in the two-day conference, themed “Maximising Growth Opportunities in Vietnam’s Telecoms Industry,” will discuss the effective use of 3G technology and opportunities for developing Internet broadband services in Vietnam. According to the International Telecoms Union, Vietnam has emerged as one of the fastest developing telecoms countries in the world. By the end of August, the country had 113.7 million telephone subscribers, a year-on-year increase of 70 percent, of which 96.5 million are mobile phone users. Over 21.6 million people, or 25.3 percent of the population, are Internet users.