PANO - Senior Lieutenant General Le Huu Duc, Deputy Minister of National Defence, on March 19th chaired a meeting to review and approve the projects to restructure the Thai Son Corporation, the Vietnam Helicopter Corporation (VNH), the Defence Ministry Design Consulting and Construction Investment Company and the plan to do business and the building up of the military-run telecom group (Viettel).

General Duc highly valued Viettel’s efforts to implement the restructuring project approved in 2013 by the Government of Vietnam. Despite last year difficulties, Viettel remained one of three businesses with the highest income tax. The group’s turnover last year was estimated at 163.499 billion VND, 15.2 per cent higher than that of 2012 and its pretax profit was over 36.533 billion VND, up 33 per cent compared to the previous year, contributing 17,953 billion VND to the State budget.

The general asked the group to continue restructuring under the approved project; and to maintain its growth and competitiveness on the international arena. The general also assigned other relevant departments under the Ministry of National Defence to cooperate and create favourable conditions, especially in overseas investment and service exploitation, for the group to meet its targets on business and production, restructuring and building the strong unit.

The general also agreed on the plan not to equitize Viettel and requested the group to ratify its regulations in 2014.

For the remaining units, General Duc gave VNH a nod to invest in the Military Commercial Joint Stock Bank (MB), increase its chartered capital to 4 trillion VND as proposed, and establish the Central Helicopter and International Helicopter Companies.

He agreed on building the Thai Son Corporation into a strong business on construction, trade and technology transfer with 28 business lines, a reduction of 7 ones.

About the Defence Ministry Design Consulting and Construction Investment Company, General Duc approved the maintenance of 8 to 10 business lines and asked the company to raise its staff’s expertise via updated new business models and shared experiences with other domestic and international design consulting units.

Translated by Mai Huong