(Nikkei BP Group)
(No.1 High-Tech News Site in Japanese)
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| Marubeni, Kanematsu Each Buy US$15.6M Stake in Telecom Project
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December 14, 1998 (HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam) -- Marubeni Corp. and Kanematsu
Corp. will take part in a telephone project with Vietnam Post and Telecommunications
(VNPT), a VNPT source said.
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Huu-Minh Nguyen, office chief of VNPT, said Marubeni and Kanematsu will
each acquire 13 percent, at a price of US$15.6 million each, in FCR
Vietnam Pte., Ltd. (FCR-V), a Singapore-based subsidiary of France Cable
et Radio, and will take part in the Vietnam telephone project, Nguyen
said.
France Cable et Radio
has a deal with VNPT to expand and jointly operate the telephone network
in the eastern area of Ho Chi Minh City, he said.
Nguyen also said that under the contract FCR would invest an amount of
US$467 million to set up a fixed phone network covering 10 districts
of the eastern Ho Chi Minh City.
Gilbert Bolliet, general manager of FCR-V, told BizTech that FCR-V will
install 540,000 telephone circuits in Ho Chi Minh City over the next
five years. A joint statement from both Marubeni and Kanematsu also
said the same.
"The project is the largest investment the telecommunications corporation
has made in Asia," Bolliet said.
FCR-V signed a memorandum of understanding with VNPT in 1994 and after
three years of negotiations, a business cooperation contract was reached
in July last year, Bolliet added. He said the duration of the contract
is 15 years.
According to Bolliet, FCV-R is calling tenders for various aspects of
construction and equipment supply. He said one foreign company in Vietnam
-- Focal Company -- already signed a contract with FCR-V to supply fiber
optic cables for the project.
FCR-V is applying modern technologies for operation of the network, with
a 12-strong team including permanent engineers working together with
a variety of specialists at various stages of construction. Within city
areas, the network will be installed entirely underground, but in suburban
neighborhoods, especially in marshy areas, the lines will be hung on
poles.
While calling for investment capital from other partners such as Marubeni
and Kanematsu, the construction started last July, Bolliet said. "It
is expected about 150km of the network will be completed at the end
of this year," he added.
Huu Minh Nguyen of VNPT confirmed that VNPT plans to eventually mobilize
a 40 percent stake among foreign investors of the total US$2.5 billion
investment capital to improve the national telecom network by the turn
of the century. However, not everything is as smooth as expected, an
official familiar with the meetings of VNPT said.
This anonymous source said due to the slowdown of subscriber growth in
large cities, some foreign players involved in business cooperation
contracts with VNPT to tap telecom services are rethinking their revenue
sharing structures. The source said FCR-V, NTT Corp. and Cable and Wireless
Plc. recently reentered negotiations with the local telecommunications
authority about the revenue-sharing rate.
These three players have joined VNPT in business cooperation contracts
that attained total investment capital worth US$ 1 billion, the source
said.
(David Tran, Asia BizTech Correspondent)
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