VimpelCom to invest $ 1 billion in Pakistan IT Sector
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ISLAMABAD: (APP) VimpelCom will invest one billion dollars in Pakistan over next five years, said Jean-Yves Charlier, CEO, VimpelCom, the parent group of Mobilink and Warid
“We are going to make major investments in network, IT systems, infrastructure and in new services for customers during next five years with an ambition to build the best network with the widest coverage and the most advanced 3G and 4G LTE services in the country”, said the VimpelCom CEO during a media briefing in Islamabad Wednesday.
He said that major investments will be made to enhance network, IT systems and in developing country’s largest store network in the country.
“We will be investing over 300 million dollars in next one year alone”, said Aamir Ibrahim, CEO of Mobilink, who was also present at the briefing.
Not to mention, Mobilink has invested over 5 billion dollars till to date in Pakistan.
VimpelCom CEO said that his group has signed a billion dollar contract with Ericsson to replace IT systems across all markets — where VimpelCom operates to offer new digital services and Mobilink and Warid will benefit from these investments very soon.
He mentioned that there will be over 1,500 new brand stores or mini franchises – some of them to be owned by the company — to be established across country, creating over 5,000 jobs with-in a short span of time.
“We fundamentally believe that the growth opportunities in Pakistan are very substantial, mainly due to young population here and penetration of mobile services that are still on the rise in the country”, explained Mr. Charlier.
The CEO said that Mobilink has achieved double figure revenue growth over past 12 months and this is only the beginning of the Smartphone adoption in the country.
“We fundamentally think that the future of telecoms in Pakistan is ahead of us, particularly with 200 million inhabitants and a very young population that wants to open up to the world, we see significant growth opportunities”, said the CEO while commenting on the way VimpelCom sees Pakistani telecom market.
