Beirut (APD) - Syrian GSM operator, SyriaTel Mobile Telecom, entered into a strategic partnership with local and Syrian-owned businesses abroad to invest in a new project for the manufacture of telecommunication devices, an official at SyriaTel told APD Tuesday.
The new project would be groundbreaking for the Middle East by enabling communications customers to use wireless mobile phones, internet services and fax machines through a single unit plugged on their machines, a statement from the company claimed earlier his week.
The partnership will be called Syrian-German Telecom Company. SyriaTel's partners in the venture are the Syrian Telecommunication Establishment (STE) and the General Telecom Company (GTC) of Germany, which is part of Vimpex Group, a Vienna-based trading company.
The partners did not give a timeframe for the project's implementation and the SyriaTel official declined to provide information on the investment amounts involved in the venture.
Construction works on a factory for the new devices have just started in Ad Dimas close to Damascus, Khaled Al Homsi, project manager, told the London-based daily newspaper Asharq Al Awsat on Monday.
Homsi added that local Syrians will be building and operating the factory under supervision of GTC, which would equip the plant with recent wireless technologies including wireless internet.
Syria's state-owned monopoly provider STE would participate with 25% in the project's costs the project's expenses. The investment had been pre-financed by GTC and STE would reimburse its share in the investment through monthly installments, Asharq Al Awsat wrote.
SyriaTel, which is the country's leading mobile network operator with 1.25 million subscribers and 55% market share at the end of 2005, will take a 24% stake in the investment.
The remaining 51% stake in the venture will be held GTC, which is owned by Syrian businessman Nabil Kuzbari. [TS]
By Mirna Sleiman, APD Staff Writer in Beirut
© APD (Arab Press Digest) 2006
