Huawei wants to cooperate with Vietnam’s Committee for State Capital Management (CSCM), dubbed as the super committee, in digital transformation and digital economy development, according to James Wu, president of Huawei Southeast Asia.

Overview of the meeting. Source: CSCM.

Wu made the statement in a meeting with Vice Chairwoman of the CSCM Nguyen Thi Phu Ha in a meeting on November 12, local media reported.

Wu added Huawei is one of the world’s biggest telecommunications network equipment suppliers, particularly 5G equipment.

Huawei’s 5G technologies are 12 – 18 months ahead of its competitors in terms of development, said Wu.

At the meeting, the CSCM’s Vice Chairwoman Ha said hi-tech products of companies like Huawei would benefit the digital transformation process in Vietnam, in turn helping state-owned enterprises enhance corporate governance, transparency and efficiency in operation.

Ha, however, stressed such process is a big task and requires long-term planning, expecting Huawei to support in certain fields such as training, raising awareness and accelerating the digital transformation process of the CSCM, among others.

Before that, Huawei had had two meetings with the CSCM in January and July with the intention of becoming the CSCM’s partner in digital transformation.

In Vietnam, three major mobile carriers of Viettel, Vinaphone and Mobifone decided against using Huawei’s 5G technologies, with the latter two under the management of the CSCM.

MobiFone selected Samsung Electronics as 5G partner while VinaPhone is cooperating with Nokia.

In an interview with Bloomberg late in September, Viettel’s CEO Le Dang Dung said the group will deploy Ericsson AB’s equipment and Nokia Oyj’s technology for 5G in Vietnam.

“I think Huawei is having difficulties in Vietnam right now, since other companies don’t use them as well,” Dung was quoted by Bloomberg as saying, whose carrier has about 60 million customers in the nation of about 96 million people.

Huawei's global expansion has faced headwinds as countries block or reconsider participation by the world's biggest telecommunications equipment supplier in local 5G network projects.

Launched last September, the CSCM is tasked with managing state capital at 19 leading state-run groups and corporations with combined capital of VND1,000 trillion (US$43.02 billion) and assets of over VND2,300 trillion (US$98.96 billion).

Key tasks of the CSCM included management of state capital; financial supervision and efficiency evaluation; appraisal of projects and investment activities; risk management and regulating working mechanism for state representatives at SOEs.