Yangon, March 26

Myanmar’s outgoing government granted the country’s fourth telecom licence to a joint venture owned by a Vietnamese operator and a local consortium that includes the military, state media reported today.

The deal comes days before Myanmar’s army-backed government is scheduled to cede power to a civilian administration led by Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD), crowning her party’s long struggle against harsh junta rule.

Hanoi-based Viettel, run by the Vietnamese military, will own a 49 per cent stake in the venture, with rest going to 11 local firms and a company owned by defence ministry, according to state-backed Global New Light of Myanmar.

“To give the public more choices in telecommunications and to increase funds of the country, we carefully scrutinised and selected the fourth telecom operator of the country,” the paper quoted Presidential Advisor Saw Oo as saying.

Viettel operates in eight markets spanning Asia, Latin America and Africa, according to its website. The company could not be reached for comment.

Six years back under junta rule in Myanmar, strict censorship laws and exorbitant SIM cards sold by a state monopoly meant web access and mobile phones were a luxury few could afford.

But the country is now awash with smartphones and home to a lively web culture after censorship was eased and two foreign firms, Norway’s Telenor and Qatar’s Ooredoo, were granted telecom licences and began selling cheap phone cards in 2014.