VIENTIANE — Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc and his Lao counterpart Thongloun Sisoulith yesterday visited telecommunications company Star Telecom, a joint venture between Lao Asia Telecom and Việt Nam’s Viettel Group.

Phúc praised Star Telcom for actively developing its infrastructure system, especially the construction and early deployment of a 4G network in Laos. He also highly appreciated the success of mobile operator Unitel, which is a trademark of Star Telecom, through the very good indicators of turnover and development of telecommunications infrastructure.

He urged Unitel to apply the 4.0 industrial revolution as the basis for future success.

Along with that, Star Telecom should further expand its participation in building smart cities and e-government if required by the Lao government, he said, adding that the company should continue to make important contributions to Laos’ development of science and technology.

He noted that Star Telecom would be the flagship in the two countries’ science and technology development co-operation, thereby contributing more and more to the special friendship and comprehensive co-operation between Viet Nam and Laos.

Lao Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith expressed his joy and welcomed achievements in the business of Star Telecom for becoming one of the largest contributors to the budget and contributing positively to the socio-economic development of Laos.

He congratulated Star Telecom on its new headquarters, one of the most beautiful buildings in the country, and expressed his hope that the company would continue to achieve more in production and business in the future.

The Unitel Building (Star Telecom headquarters) is located on the main road in the centre of Vientiane, with 11 floors. Construction started in May 2015 with total investment of about US$12 million.

According to Cao Anh Sơn, CEO of Star Telecom, in nine years of business, Unitel has become the leading telecom operator in Laos for seven consecutive years with 2.8 million customers, accounting for 52 per cent of the market share.

It has the largest network infrastructure with 6,000 2G/3G/4G stations, covering 95 per cent of the country.

Star Telecom had also been entrusted by the Lao government to deploy key e-government systems for the country such as co-ordinating with the Ministry of Posts and Telematics for a Lao font system, Ministry of Education and Sports for an online learning and examination portal and the Ministry of Civil Affairs for a citizen administration system.

"In the future, Unitel is committed to continue to improve its products and services to maintain the leading position and at the same time, pioneer the implementation of the 4.0 industrial revolution in finance and banking solutions, e-commerce, digital content stores on health, education and entertainment to contribute to country building,” Sơn said.

Olaha Thongvanhtha, Chairman of Star Telecom, thanked the joint venture partner from Việt Nam, saying that Viettel had helped Lao Asia Telecom grow strongly from its difficult fourth position in Laos, becoming the number one operator in just two years.

After nine years of business, Unitel had earned US$1.22 billion in accumulated revenue, and $480 million in profits, becoming the largest telecommunications joint venture in terms of scale, contribution to society and to the country, he said. — VNS