A Study on Universal Service in Vietnam from an Institutional Perspective

Applying the institutional theory to examine the universal services policy in Vietnam, the paper looked at the institutional factors influencing the formulation and deployment of “the Program on provision of universal service till 2010”. The formulation of universal services policy in Vietnam was remarkably affected by directives of the Communist Party of Vietnam as well as the international commitments that Vietnam participated in. It is of a different feature compared to other countries. Furthermore, the implementation of this Program revealed the loose co-operations between central government (Ministry of Information and Communications - MIC) and the department of provincial governments (Departments of Information and Communications - DICs) as well as DICs and telecom providers in supervising the implementation of this Program. Consequently, telecom providers overlapped in provision of universal services, and households could get the same subsidies from two or three operators. The outcome of this paper recommends that the central government should emphasize the role of DICs and encourage them to be more involved in the formulation and implementation of universal services policy.