In its first participation in Fortune’s decade-long ranking, Viettel achieved a high ranking, above many large corporations in the world such as Walmart, Alibaba, and L’Oreal. Viettel is also the only Vietnamese enterprise on the list.
In conducting its evaluations, Fortune highlighted companies that demonstrate leadership in addressing major global issues, from climate change to inequality to public health.
If the first place in “Change the world 2024” is the group of businesses Space X, GHG Sat, Rocket Lab for developing emission monitoring satellites, Grab Holdings ranked second for financial support for seasonal workers and small retailers, then Viettel was honored for its efforts to improve the quality of education in Vietnam and 10 foreign markets in which Viettel invested.
Specifically, the educational network connection program, also known as the school Internet, has changed the traditional way of teaching and operating schools for many years, opening up a new and unlimited way of accessing knowledge. For nearly 2 decades, the Internet provided by Viettel for educational institutions has gone from being something new and strange to becoming familiar and indispensable for teachers and students in their daily activities.
Helping 25 million people access the Internet
Back in 2008, Vietnam had officially connected to the international Internet for 11 years (since November 19, 1997). However, after more than a decade, the concept of "going online" was not really popular in Vietnam, especially in rural, remote, and disadvantaged areas. By 2007, according to the Ministry of Information and Communications, the number of Internet users in Vietnam only accounted for about 24% of the country's population.
Access is limited by uneven telecommunications infrastructure, high connection costs and a lack of Internet access programmes, especially in education. The contrast between urban and less well-off areas widens the learning gap between regions, greatly limiting opportunities for exposure and knowledge acquisition.
According to statistics from the Department of Information Technology of the Ministry of Education and Training, as of early 2008-2009, there were still more than 17,000 out of 27,500 schools nationwide that were not connected to the Internet, accounting for 62%.
In that context, Viettel Group (then Viettel Military Telecommunications Corporation) and the Ministry of Education and Training signed a memorandum of understanding in September 2008, officially starting the connection of the education network. The 2008-2009 school year was also identified by the Ministry of Education and Training as the "school year to promote the application of information technology".
The process is divided into three phases. Step one: Connecting the Ministry of Education and Training to the local department system, completed in October 2008. Step two: Connecting to universities, colleges, secondary schools and vocational schools, completed in June 2009. Step three: Connecting to the general school system, completed in 2010.
Viettel's leaders at that time said that this was a great effort by Viettel to support the application of IT in the education sector, "flattening" learning and research opportunities between school systems, and modern educational methods will reach the most remote communes.
Just 2 years later, Viettel fulfilled its initial commitment. With this result, Vietnam has become one of the few countries in the world with 100% of educational facilities connected to the Internet. In the 2010 report of SEAMEO - the ASEAN Ministers of Education Organization, the assessment of ICT in education ranked Vietnam in a high position, on par with Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines. Just 2 years before that, Vietnam was ranked in the lowest group, along with Laos, Cambodia, and Myanmar.
A new agreement was signed, with a commitment to upgrade the transmission lines for schools to broadband, ensuring faster and more stable access speeds. Over the past 16 years, in addition to providing transmission lines, Viettel has also supported many schools in upgrading their IT infrastructure such as providing computers, printers and internal network systems. By 2024, the program has helped 25 million students and teachers access the Internet, contributing to increasing the Internet access rate in Vietnam to 85%.
"The heart of a soldier"
From that success, later, when Viettel expanded its international investment, in areas where learning and teaching faced similar difficulties as Vietnam had experienced, Viettel continued to expand school Internet.
Countries such as Peru, Mozambique, Burundi, Laos, and Cambodia have all received free internet access from Viettel to schools nationwide, with funding of up to several hundred billion VND in each country. For example, in Haiti, Viettel has committed to the government to install internet access for more than 1,000 schools in the 2021-2025 period.
Later, in the world, some big organizations and names in the world also implemented projects to cover the Internet to disadvantaged groups. These include Google's Loon project (launched in 20213), Facebook's Internet.org (Meta) (launched in 2015) with the goal of bringing the Internet to remote areas or the closest is the GIGA initiative initiated by UNICEF (United Nations Children's Fund) and ITU (International Telecommunication Union) in 2019, aiming to help schools in many countries without internet connection.
Viettel, with the view from the first days of business that profit is not everything, but contribution to the community has proven its correct vision by pioneering and early implementing the integration of the Internet into the education sector.
To implement the project quickly, sustainably and last until now, we must mention the foundation of Viettel, a telecommunications company operating in many countries, possessing a strong infrastructure. Above all, Viettel also stands out for its persistent spirit, never giving up.
Mr. Nguyen Thien Nhan - former Minister of Education and Training - once commented: "The program shows the heart of a soldier. Although education (Ministry of Education and Training) does not assign tasks to the army, the army with the spirit of having soldiers to take charge wherever there is difficulty has solved the educational bottleneck in doing Information Technology, which is the infrastructure problem. Without the heart and will of a soldier, it would be much slower and much longer before we can popularize the Internet to schools nationwide."
