Etisalat directors examine four-year strategy to meet challenges of the liberalized market

The board discussed investment opportunities inside and outside the region.

The board meeting, held this week and chaired by HE Dr. Mohammed Khalfan bin Kharbash, looked at the fine details of the four-year plan which will decide Etisalat's future direction after the UAE telecom market is opened up to competition. The aim is to expand to build on the Corporation's successes which has seen it become established as the market leader in the region on the back of a policy of rolling out the most advanced services to its customers.

The meeting focused on the strategy's three key mechanisms. First, moves to accelerate growth and development. Second, defining the challenges and opportunities in the new liberalized market. Three, pinpointing what needs to be done to enable Etisalat to achieve the proposed objective by 2008.

The board also discussed the financial report for the first nine months of this year, during which Etisalat's net profit climbed to AED 2.625 billion, an 18.9 per cent increase on the AED 2.207 billion recorded for the same period last year.

Dr. Kharbash said: "Etisalat has seen performance and results soar this year. This is the result of the success of the Corporation's policy of seeking to provide the highest standards of services by utilizing the latest applications and technologies."

The board carefully examined the investment and expansion plans that will define the Corporation's operations in the newly liberalised market. Accessing new markets is the core of Etisalat's strategy for future expansion, both locally and regionally.

This policy is well underway and was evident when the Corporation led a consortium including six Saudi partners to success in gaining the second GSM licence in the Kingdom. This was followed by the recent award to a second Etisalat-led consortium of the licence to operate Sudan's second nationwide fixed line phone service.

In the meeting, Dr. Kharbash confirmed that getting into the Saudi and Sudanese markets are merely the initial stages of the Corporation's ambitious plan to expand into regional and international markets and boost the value of shareholders' investments. He said it is inevitable that the Corporation would expand into new telecom markets where competition is vigorous.

The board reviewed the steps taken by the "Etisalat Consortium" prior to the launch of its operation in the Saudi market and commended those who led the project which attracted SR 51 billion of investors funds with its first initial public offering (IPO). Dr. Kharbash said: "We wouldn't have achieved this success without the trust enjoyed by the Consortium in the Saudi market."