Vietnam Post office goes it alone from New Year’s Day

The Viet Nam Posts and Telecommunication Group (VNPT) has been split into posts and telecommunication divisions.

The long-prepared divide was formally approved on Wednesday and the Viet Nam Postal Corporation will be launched next Tuesday, January 1, 2008.

It will retain all of its fixed assets and manage State post offices throughout Vietnam.

The corporation will provide public welfare services to remote Vietnam and manage the national postal network, including domestic and international postal services, and press publications.

The VNPT will manage the national communications network as well as information and communication services.

The split is intended to enable a better management of postal and telecommunications services and help both to develop.

Viet Nam Postal Corporation general director Do Ngoc Binh said the corporation would try to expand its business and balance revenue and expenditure by 2010, and then gradually turn a profit.

Vietnam’s prime-minister-approved five-year Postal Development Master Plan provides for an increase of postal-service sites to 13,500 by the end of 2010.

The plan requires the Postal Corporate to ensure that all communes, including remote and highland, have daily newspaper deliveries.

But it will get State help for its public-welfare work.

Postal services provided VNPT with only 5 pct of its to total revenue.

The new corporation intends to expand providing pension payments, insurance services and the collection of electricity, telephone and water fees.

The Government is seeking both domestic and international investment for the development of its transmitting services.