Universal service in Vietnam: The role of government

Purpose: This paper aims to look at the universal service policy in Vietnam interval 2005-2010 from a stakeholder perspective to clarify the role of stakeholders as well as initiatives used to implement the policy. Design/methodology/approach: This paper applies the stakeholder framework of Papazafeiropoulou and Pouloudi (2000) to identify which actors implemented the universal service policy and what initiatives were used by the central government. In addition, this paper also uses the qualitative method to clarify the stakeholders’ position on performing the universal service policy. The qualitative interview is recruited to verify and triangulate the result of the secondary data. Findings: This paper finds that the Vietnamese government controlled the universal service policy via an administrative regime that the central government ordered and other stakeholders followed; the universal service policy focused much on delivering universal service and infrastructure; however, there was lack of initiatives rising awareness of rural users about the benefit of the internet, or training courses on improving rural users’ skills to use the internet; and stakeholders implementing the universal service policy were state entities in which the national government played a central role, and there was no involvement of the private sector and the civil society. Originality/value: Little research on universal service policies in Vietnam has been made. By analyzing the Vietnamese case, achievements and drawbacks in implementing universal service policies are identified and lessons for other developing countries are derived.