Slovakia wants Vietnam telcos to come
Le Hong Quang, advisor to the Prime Minister of Slovakia, met with Vietnamese Minister of Information and Communications Truong Minh Tuan in Hanoi on Tuesday. He invited Vietnam’s mobile network carriers to do business in Slovakia. He is also working to help Viettel enter the Slovak market which will serve as a gateway to the broader European market.
Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico is expected to visit Vietnam in July after Slovakia takes over the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union on July 1, Quang said.
Minister Tuan requested Quang to make more contributions to fostering Vietnam-Slovakia cooperation in the information and communication technology (ICT) sector which now has 500,000 workers.
Tuan will be visiting the European country on June 19-22. A Vietnam-Slovakia ICT forum will then be held with Vietnam’s four leading telecom firms, Viettel, VNPT, FPT and MobiFone, attending.
According to Quang, 5,000 Vietnamese people live in Slovakia, and two-way trade between the two countries was put at only US$70 million in October, 2008 but the figure jumped to US$1.8 billion last year.
