The Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC) will submit its equitisation plan for Mobifone to the Government by end-2014 and if approved, it will implement this plan in 2015.

At an industry seminar on October 6, Information and Communications Minister Nguyen Bac Son said that among the 432 domestic enterprises to be equitised, Mobifone, the mobile telecommunications network operator, would make a considerable impact as it would attract a lot of investment capital.

Equitisation, or the partial privatisation of a state company, is considered a reasonable measure that will help Mobifone lure strategic investors to raise its level of competitiveness.

Last June, Mobifone separated from the State-owned Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications (VNPT) and was placed under MIC management.

The Ho Chi Minh Securities Corporation (HSC) then valued Mobifone at about 3.4 billion USD and projected that this may rise to more than 4 billion USD if the company's revenues and profits continuously increased after its separation from VNPT.

According to the MIC, VNPT will likely hold 20 percent of Mobifone's registered capital since this is the maximum stake allowed under the cross-ownership regulation of the 2009 Telecommunication Law.

MobiFone and rival Vinaphone were once under the VNPT umbrella. Along with Viettel, the companies account for more than 90 percent of the Vietnamese telecommunications market.

Launched in 1993, Mobifone was the first telecommunications company to operate in Vietnam. According to the MIC's 2013 ICT White Book, Mobifone was the second largest mobile network operator with 21.4 percent of market share, second only to Viettel with 40.5 percent.

Last year, Mobifone earned 41 trillion VND (1.95 billion USD) in revenues and more than 6 trillion VND (285.7 million USD) in profits.-VNA