Mr.
Ola Ree, Managing Director, Grameen Phone Ltd.
A
story of a successful investment .…..
On
the eve of my joining, GrameenPhone celebrated
its achievement of 100,000 subscribers-base. It
was the beginning of year 2000.
Since then, there is no looking back. GP
continued its journey and has made a history of
500,000-subscriber mark. This is indeed an important
milestone for GrameenPhone. It is a remarkable
achievement considering that the GP services were
only launched about five years ago. The journey
to 500,000-subscriber base has indeed enriched
my experience, which I feel worthy to share.
So
far, in this country, my impression is very positive
regarding investment. I would say, I am more optimistic
than expected.
The total environment is supportive including
the culture, specially for telecom sector.
For
the last five years, Government and its related
authorities have provided its continuous supports.
I am pretty hopeful to see that the mobile phone
sector has received more attention from the concerned
authorities and gradually some bottlenecks and
other regulatory obstacles have been removed.
It has been possible as government realized that,
building virtual infrastructure is as important
as physical infrastructure, and the importance
is more to some extent.
All
these supports facilitated GrameenPhone to a greater
extent to make basic telephony available to half
a million people at an affordable cost. Other
mobile operators have also contributed to the
expansion to the development of the mobile phone
sector in the country. Eventually, this development
of telecom sector has significantly contributed
to the growth of the country’s GDP.
On
the other part, GrameenPhone has contributed more
than Taka 370 crore over the last five years to
the Government Exchequer by paying various taxes
and levies. This was a great help from GrameenPhone
to the government to enrich its reserve situation.
I
have found that people of Bangladesh is more inclined
to using mobile phones compared to many other
countries having better GDP due to many reasons.
The main obstacle here, I think, is the cost of
the handsets. Therefore, I believe that if the
import duty on the handset is rationalized, it
will enable a huge number of people to use mobile
phones. This in turn will generate increased revenue
for the Government Exchequer.
I
feel that the formation of the Telecom Regulatory
Commission will also provide further impetus to
the development of the country’s telecommunications
sector. I am very pleased see that the Government
has rightly identified Information Technology
(IT) as a thrust sector, which is very much needed
to bridge the gap of digital divide. Let us not
forget that development of IT will not be possible
without a means of transportation, therefore equal
thrust needs to be given for the development of
IT transportation, that is the telecommunications
sector.
I
am personally very pleased to be here in Bangladesh.
This is indeed a great experience in my life.
Thus, I express my heartfelt thanks and appreciation
to everybody here including from the government
to a subscriber.
Grameen
Phone Ltd.
Celebration
Point, Road # 113/A, Plot 3&5, Gulshan -2,
Dhaka 1212, Bangladesh
Tel : ++ 88
02 988 2990 Fax : ++ 88 02 988 2970
Web:http://www.grameenphone.com
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