HÀ NỘI — The Ministry of National Defence has appointed Major General Lê Đăng Dũng as the general director cum standing chairman of Viettel Military Industry and Telecoms Group, starting July 31^st.

Dung will replace Major General Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng, who was appointed standing Minister of Information and Communications on July 25.

Dũng joined Viettel in 1996. He has held many important positions at Viettel including deputy director and deputy general director of Viettel for 16 years – the longest time in the group’s history. He has also held the position of chairman cum general director of Viettel Global since 2016.

In his time at Viettel, he had guidelines to focus resources on implementing Viettel’s three key strategies including domestic telecommunications, foreign telecommunications and research and production of telecom equipment; building a “flattening” organisation by removing the intermediate level to help the group be flexible and creative and nurturing human resources to create breakthroughs for Viettel.

Under his steering wheel, Viettel Global earned revenue of US$1.25 billion in 2017, becoming the first and still only Vietnamese firm to reach that threshold. It repatriated $233 million last year, rising 31 per cent year-on-year. Its growth rate of overseas investment in 2017 reached 24.4 per cent – the highest level so far and six times higher than the world average level. 

Viettel has invested in 10 overseas markets so far, among which the company takes the lion’s share in five and makes a profit in eight, the company said.

Viettel has in the Top 15 largest telecoms companies in the world in term of number of subscribers and Top 40 in term of revenue.

Dũng studied electric engineering in Russia between 1977 and 1983 and from 1988 to 1990. He joined a three-year course at the University of South Australia from 1993-96. — VNS