Viettel and the source of money for the defense industry: the truth behind the numbers

Behind the missile, radar, and UAV complexes participating in the National Day parade on September 2 is Viettel's outstanding business performance.

Vietnam Report recently announced the PROFIT500 Ranking - Top 500 Most Profitable Enterprises in Vietnam in 2025. In which, Viettel surpassed PetroVietnam to become the most profitable enterprise in 2025. The profit of the Military Industry - Telecommunications Group (Viettel) has continuously increased since 2021 and by 2024 reached the highest level in the history of the enterprise.

'Nice' profit structure

With "huge" profits, PetroVietnam, VinGroup and Viettel contributed 77,400, 56,200 and 46,300 billion VND respectively to the state budget in 2024. These are also the 3 leading enterprises in terms of budget contributions.

However, the budget contribution structure of these three enterprises once again affirms the advantage of technology industries over resource-based businesses.

The total budget payment of each enterprise can be divided into specific budget payments related to the business sector (such as resource tax, special consumption tax of oil and gas enterprises or land tax of real estate enterprises) and budget payments from profits (corporate income tax, profit transfer to the budget with state-owned enterprises).

Viettel is one of the most profitable enterprises in Vietnam.

The second is often considered to represent business efficiency, showing that the business is creating high economic value while not relying heavily on resource exploitation.

Although ranked 3rd in absolute numbers, Viettel has the "better" structure, when out of the total 46,300 billion VND paid to the budget, the majority (over 30,000 billion) is corporate income tax and corporate profits. This figure of Viettel is higher than that of other enterprises that also contribute to the budget over 10,000 billion VND.

Notably, among the 10 enterprises that contribute the most to the state budget, Viettel is also the only technology enterprise. This not only shows the efficiency of business investment of enterprises in recent years, but also shows that technology development is a highly effective direction, bringing great economic value.

Dr. Nguyen Van Phung, former Director of the Large Enterprise Tax Management Department, General Department of Taxation (now the Large Enterprise Tax Branch, Tax Department) said that to create a sustainable source of state budget revenue, it is necessary to rely on the development of enterprises and production and business activities.

"In this list, it must be said that Viettel - a state-owned enterprise - is one of the units that I have a very high level of trust in. Deserving to be one of the enterprises that is the child of the people, from the people, serving the people" - Mr. Nguyen Van Phung assessed.

Investment in R&D – The foundation for technology and defense development

Not only does Viettel have a "beautiful" profit structure, it also possesses one of the most effective investment mechanisms for research and development (R&D) in the state-owned enterprise sector. According to the mechanism approved by the Politburo from 2023, Viettel is allowed to allocate up to 30% of its after-tax profit to reinvest in R&D, especially in the core technology and defense sectors.

This is a very rare ratio in the state-owned enterprise system, demonstrating the strategic trust that the Party and State have in Viettel as a pillar in the development of high-tech industry and modern defense industry.

Viettel brought two missile complexes and many weapons to the parade celebrating the 80th anniversary of the August Revolution and National Day September 2.

From this sustainable investment source, Viettel has been mastering many core technologies in telecommunications, digital technology, defense industry and semiconductor field. Recent outstanding achievements show that R&D at Viettel is not just limited to ideas or prototypes in the laboratory, but has a clear presence in the market and in the national strategy.

At the recent military parade to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the August Revolution and National Day on September 2, some of the high-tech weapons developed by Viettel were displayed to the public, such as the S-125-VT surface-to-air missile and the Truong Son anti-ship missile.

Earlier this year, the Group introduced semiconductor chips and exported 5G network equipment at Mobile World Congress 2025, the largest event in the mobile industry.

According to information from the Party Congress for the 2025-2030 term, this enterprise aims to grow 12% to 14% per year in the next 5 years, in which exports of high-tech and digital technology industries will grow 25% to 30% per year. If these goals are achieved, Viettel's R&D budget will be further expanded to invest in technologies identified as national strategies under Resolution 57.

Responding to the press, Viettel representative said that it has set a goal of mastering 9 out of 11 national strategic technology groups and forming new high-tech business lines, including semiconductor technology - specifically specialized chip lines, 5G-Advanced and 6G technology, missiles, satellites, aviation equipment such as airplanes and UAVs, etc. These technologies are expected to be researched and developed within the next 5 years.

With high revenue, sustainable profits and a transparent R&D mechanism, Viettel affirms its role as a national backbone enterprise, not only in terms of economy but also in national defense and security.

Source: https://nld.com.vn/viettel-va-nguon-tien-cho-cong-nghiep-quoc-phong-su-that-sau-cac-con-so-196250916111008026.htm