Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Manh Hung chaired the meeting with the Burundi delegation led by Ms. Léocadie Ndacayisaba - Minister of Communications, Information Technology and Multimedia. Also attending were leaders of the Departments and Offices of the Ministry of Information and Communications, the Academy of Posts and Telecommunications Technology.

Enterprises are the bridge between two countries.

At the meeting, Minister Nguyen Manh Hung emphasized that Vietnam and Burundi have a “common child” which is Vietnamese enterprises operating in the African country, including the Lumitel network. Since establishing the company here, the Lumitel network has paid more than 500 million USD in taxes to the host country, accounting for the majority of the market share, contributing significantly to improving the quality of communications and telecommunications services in Burundi.

In addition, the two countries have experienced similarities such as war, embargo and poverty. More than anyone, Vietnam understands the difficulties and challenges that Burundi is facing. On that basis, the Ministry of Information and Communications always encourages businesses, not only in the telecommunications sector, to invest and do business in this East African country.

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Vietnam's Ministry of Information and Communications signed a memorandum of understanding on development cooperation with Burundi's Ministry of Communications, Information Technology and Multimedia. Photo: Le Anh Dung

Minister Nguyen Manh Hung suggested that Burundi increase the exchange of delegations in the field of information and communications in the coming time, especially in new areas such as digital transformation, digital economy , and human resource training. Vietnam has a relatively complete telecommunications development institution, so it is completely possible to share experiences with Burundi in this field.

Also at the meeting, the leaders of the Ministry of Information and Communications expressed their hope that Burundi would continue to create favorable conditions and support Vietnamese enterprises investing and doing business here to participate in key telecommunications projects, such as rural mobile coverage projects, 5G frequency allocation, and extension of investment incentives, and research to develop a roadmap for tax reduction for telecommunications enterprises.

Ms. Léocadie Ndacayisaba, Minister of Communications, Information Technology and Multimedia of Burundi, highly appreciated Lumitel's contributions, recognizing the practical benefits of this network operator for the people here. This is also a telecommunications enterprise with an overwhelming market share. In the coming time, she suggested that Lumitel continue to expand its investment, improve service quality and affirmed that she will discuss with relevant agencies to ensure the best conditions for Vietnamese enterprises.

Burundi also thanked the Vietnamese Ministry of Information and Communications for actively supporting the exchange of experiences in building and perfecting legal and sub-legal documents for the telecommunications sector over the past time. The Burundian representative affirmed that the Vietnam International Digital Week event is a useful "playground" for parties to share experiences and connect in digital development.

Digital infrastructure solves poverty alleviation problem

“Vietnam has experienced many wars, embargoes and poverty. Therefore, Vietnam understands the current situation of Burundi,” said the head of the Ministry of Information and Communications. However, he emphasized that difficulties are also the driving force for strong aspirations. Vietnam has entered the group of middle-income countries from a low-income country. The Ministry of Information and Communications is willing to share its development experience over the past 40 years with Burundi.

According to Minister Nguyen Manh Hung, the "millennium" problems of poor countries can basically be solved using digital technology , such as the gap between urban and rural rich and poor, the quality of civil servants, output for agricultural products, the lack of teachers and doctors in remote areas, or tax collection from technology "giants".

In order to support Burundi in strengthening its digital human resources, the Ministry of Information and Communications said it is implementing a program to grant undergraduate or postgraduate scholarships (up to 10,000 USD/scholarship) in the fields of telecommunications, digital economy, digital transformation, etc. In addition, Vietnam is ready to support Burundi in designing short-term and online courses based on the practical needs of the country.

At the end of the meeting, Minister Nguyen Manh Hung affirmed that he would direct Lumitel to continue improving service quality, expanding coverage, and actively solving Burundi's "difficult" problems. In addition, he emphasized that Vietnamese enterprises must not forget to respect the law and pay taxes in full in the host country.

Cooperation is the best way to develop AI applications and virtual assistants . Commenting that artificial intelligence is new to everyone, Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Manh Hung pointed out that cooperation is the best way to apply AI, develop and use virtual assistants.