Telecoms & ITC

Qatar: Busy tone

Qatar's telecommunications sector is becoming increasingly competitive, both domestically and on the international stage. The recently released Global Competitiveness Report 2009-10, prepared by the World Economic Forum (WEF), ranked Qatar as the most competitive economy in the Middle East and North Africa region, and 22nd overall out of the 133 countries assessed. The country scored highly in the category of technological readiness, the ability of an economy to adopt existing technologies to enhance productivity. In particular, the WEF cited Qatar's embrace of new communications technology as a factor that enhanced its competitiveness, saying, "The country has made great strides in harnessing the latest technologies, such as mobile telephony and broadband. "Those great strides have seen Qatar ranked second in the world for per-capita mobile phone ownership, 37th for broadband internet subscriptions and 33rd for the total number of internet users. While the willingness of Qataris to make use of the latest technological advances has helped to improve the country's economic competitiveness at the international level, it is on the domestic stage where things are really heating up.

Egypt ICT sector set for massive growth

Egypt's ICT industry is one of the fastest growing sectors in the region and will be worth around US$1.9 billion by 2013, according to a report. The Business Monitor International (BMI) in its recent report said the overall foreign investment in Egypt has risen to US$13.4 billion and one major area of investment in the country has been the ICT market. In a move to attract further investment, more than 30 Egyptian companies will be participating at this year's Gitex Technology Week to be held in Dubai from October 18 to 22. Egyptian companies have always had a strong presence at the show, spearheaded by the Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA), the executive IT arm of Egypt's Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT).

Vavasi-Malaysian group claims bid on Zain

Two months after Vivendi ended its efforts to buy Zain's Africa operations, a consortium of Indian telecom companies and a Malaysian investor are sorting out details of their successful bid to buy a 46 per cent share in the continent's second largest mobile telecom service provider, after MTN. The new shareholders of the company said they will pay US$14 billion for the shares, making it one of the biggest overseas acquisitions in the Gulf region. The consortium comprises India's Vavasi Group; regional Indian telecom companies Bharat Sanchar Nigam and Mahamagar Telephone Nigam; and Malaysian billionaire Syed Mokhtar Al-Bukhary. Vivendi, a French telecom company, abandoned its bid to buy the Zain Africa operations, claiming the deal would not have been consistent with the company's investment criteria as well as in the best interest of the company's shareholders.