[news] NEC Establishes Vietnam Joint Venture

[Phan Anh Son <Phan@PGSM.HU>]

Tin dda~ ga^`n 1 tha'ng, hy vo.ng kho^ng pha?i vi` va^.y ma` dda~ cu~
Son,

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NEC Establishes Vietnam Joint Venture 05/27/97


TOKYO, JAPAN, 1997 MAY 27 (NB) -- By Martyn Williams. NEC Corporation
[TOKYO:6701] has announced the
establishment of a new joint venture in Vietnam, with Vietnam Post and
Telecommunications (VNPT), to manufacture and
market digital telephone switching systems. VNPT-NEC Telecommunication
Systems Company, Ltd. (VINECO) will be
established in July and begin making equipment in 1998.

NEC will hold a controlling 51-percent stake in the company with the
remainder being held by VNPT. Total investment by
both companies will be US$15-million, said NEC. The joint venture will
produce NEC's NEAX61 digital switching system
and software for the switch.

VPNT is Vietnam's major domestic and international telephone provider
and has set out to modernize the national
telecommunications network and raise the number of telephones per head
of population from the current 1.6 to 6 per 100 by
2000. This will involve installing an extra three-million lines over the
next two years. NEC said its new joint venture will have an
annual capacity of 500,000 and 700,000 lines by its second year of
operation.

NEC said it has received orders for 260,000 lines since it entered the
Vietnamese telecommunications market in 1992. It has
also participated in trails of the Japanese PHS (personal handyphone
system) with Hanoi Posts and Telecommunications, an
affiliate of VNPT.