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Intel will not close its Vietnam unit, said Pham An Duong, marketing director of Intel Vietnam on Wednesday.
 Duong denied the recent rumour that Intel Vietnam is completing procedures to end its operation, noting that the company is conducting personnel and operation restructuring for further development.
 He told Viet Nam News Agency reporters that the move is in line with the group's restructuring roadmap which was announced in April this year, including a workforce cut at many of its units around the world.
 Accordingly, Intel Vietnam will reduce its workforce by two-thirds after September 30 and shift to Internet of Things and data centre businesses, Duong said.
 Intel Vietnam operates independently from Intel Products Vietnam, which is the largest within Intel's assembly and test network.
 Le Hoai Quoc, head of the management board of HCM City Hi-tech Park, said the down-sizing at Intel Vietnam does not affect Intel's factory at the hi-tech park and Intel Products Vietnam is operating normally. — Viet Nam News

Laos’ govt announces
new targets on districts
The Lao government has announced targets to build five to 10 provinces as strategic units with each province to create two to five comprehensively strengthened districts by 2020.
Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith recently issued an order detailing the targets after the government learnt that progress had been slow in building provinces as strategic units and districts as comprehensively strengthened units.
Since 2011, the government has been implementing the resolution adopted by the 9th Party Congress, which included the Three Builds devolution directive. The directive seeks to build provinces as strategic units, districts as comprehensively strengthened units, and villages as development units.
However, work carried out in recent years has been undertaken only at the village level in 109 villages selected to pilot the directive, the prime minister stated in the order. He noted that this work had not been earnestly carried out in provinces and districts.
Thongloun has instructed Vientiane and the provinces to draw up five-year, 10-year and 15-year measures to build the capital and the provinces as strategic units and define clear work responsibilities and benefits for districts, to create conditions that enable districts to become comprehensively strengthened units. - Vientiane Times

Unitel reaches $1 bn
revenue in Laos
Unitel, the brand name of Viettel in Laos, reached US$1 billion (Bt35 billion) in cumulative revenue in seven years of operation in the country.
Being the second overseas brand name of Viettel, after Metfone in Cambodia, Unitel has rapidly become the number one mobile network provider in Laos. It made a cumulative profit of more than $300 million.
Unitel has 2.5 million subscribers, accounting for 47 per cent of mobile market share and 35 per cent of broadband market share.
The company has installed 4,000 base transceiver stations and 23,000km of fibre-optic cable across Laos to bring telecom services to all districts in Laos and 95 per cent of its population. In particular, the company has been providing the 4G service since June last year.
Unitel has helped to change the telecommunication market significantly with mobile use increasing from 18 per cent in 2009 to 68 per cent in 2016. It has created jobs for more than 4,000 locals, while an additional 20,000 indirect jobs have been created through their collaborator programmes and partners. – Vientiane Times