Vietnamese, Lao PMs visit Star Telecom hinh anh 1Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc (L) shakes hands with his Lao counterpart Thongloun Sisoulith at the inaugural ceremony of the Star Telecom's new headquarters (Photo: VNA)

Vientiane (VNA) - Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and his Lao counterpart Thongloun Sisoulith on February 4 visited telecommunications company Star Telecom, a joint venture between Lao Asia Telecom and Vietnam’s Viettel Group.

PM Phuc praised Star Telecom 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’s development of science and technology.

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

PM 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 12 million USD.

According to Cao Anh Son, 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 percent of the market share.

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

Star Telecom had also been entrusted by the Lao Government to deploy key e-government systems for the country such as coordinating with the Ministry of Posts and Telematics for a Lao font system, the 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 continue contributing to country building,” Son said.-VNA

VNA