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Oct 24, 2018 / 10:46

Vietnam National Assembly appoints minister of information

Hung received 461 votes out of 469 from present National Assembly deputies at the NA`s plenum on October 24.

Vietnam's National Assembly (NA), the country's supreme legislative body, has approved Nguyen Manh Hung, acting minister of Information and Communications, to officially hold the post, the government portal reported. 
 
Vietnam NA's Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan and Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc congratulate newly elected Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Manh Hung (middle). Source: VGP.
Vietnam NA's Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan and Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc congratulate newly elected Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Manh Hung (middle). Source: VGP.
Hung was backed by 461 approval votes out of 469 from present National Assembly deputies at the NA's plenum on October 24. 

One day earlier, the NA formally relieved Truong Minh Tuan with a majority of votes, who has been involved in a business scandal, from the post of the Minister of Information and Communications. 

President Tran Dai Quang on Monday suspended Truong Minh Tuan from the post as the head of the ministry for his wrongdoing in the case in which telco Mobifone acquired TV pay service provider AVG.

On July 25, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc appointed Hung, former chairman of military-run telecoms group Viettel and a major general, as acting minister of Information and Communication for the 2016 - 2021 term. 

Hung, 56, studied telecommunication electronics in Russia and took his master degree in telecommunications in Australia.

He went through the ranks of Viettel before becoming the chairman and CEO of the telco, for which he is highly regarded as the architect behind Viettel's success story. 


At a meeting with Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc on June 26, Hung informed the group has become one of the world's top 15 largest telecommunications companies with 100 million subscribers globally. 


With an annual growth of 10-15% by 2020, Viettel set revenue target of VND350 trillion-VND400 trillion (US$15.4-US$17.6 billion USD), pre-tax profit of VND50-55 trillion (US$2.18 - 2.4 billion) and becoming one of the top 10 telecom firms in the world, stated Hung in the meeting. 


Viettel currently is the only Vietnamese companies having revenue of over US$1 billion from investments abroad. Total number of customers using Viettel's services in foreign markets is estimated at 43 million by the end of 2017, up 15% year-on-year.