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| Sunday, 25 January 2004 |
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Largest ever IFC funding for Dialog GSM In its largest Sri Lankan investment to date, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) last week inked an agreement for a US$ 50 million funding of cellular operator, Dialog GSM. The agreement was signed last Friday by IFC's Vice President Operations Assaad Jabre and Director South Asia Dimitris Tsitsiragos and Dialog GSM's Chairman, Tan Sri Radzi bin Mansor and CEO Dr Hans Wijayasuriya. The IFC, the private sector arm of the World Bank Group, selected Dialog GSM, a fully-owned subsidiary of Telekom Malaysia BhD, as a key infrastructure investment in Sri Lanka following a comprehensive due diligence study of its growth potential, past achievements and management. The funding will support the accelerated expansion of Dialog GSM's network as well as its International Gateway Services. The company will accelerate its expansion plans in terms of both coverage across the island and value added services. Jabre of the IFC said: "We are pleased to support a company that is playing a leading role in expanding access to telecommunication services, especially in the North and East, where access has been most limited. On a more general level, IFC sees great potential for private investment to contribute to the rapid development of Sri Lanka's infrastructure, while offering attractive returns to investors, and IFC's investment in Dialog is a concrete demonstration of this". Dialog GSM has climbed from industry new entrant to market leader within four years. It has consistently maintained a technology level on par with GSM networks in the developed world and as spelled out by CEO Dr Wijayasuriya, the company intends, in addition to extending its leadership in the mobile communications sector, to establish a strong presence in the international services market under its newest power brand Dialog Global. Already a leading player in the IDD retail sector, Dialog Global will soon enter the international bandwidth services market with the establishment of SeMeWe3 submarine cable service, targeted at delivering international bandwidth in support of the country's growing ICT requirements. Speaking of the commitment of Telekom Malaysia to Sri Lanka's telecommunications industry, CEO, Telekom Malaysia International, Christian De Faria said: "We are proud of our long-standing involvement in Sri Lanka's telecommunications sector. Over the last 10 years, since our entry to Sri Lanka in 1994, steadfast investment from Telekom Malaysia combined with a committed team at Dialog GSM and excellent support from the Government and regulatory bodies have enabled our subsidiary to establish a position of leadership in the mobile sector. Today we are happy to welcome the IFC as a partner in the journey going forward, which will bring greater developments and benefits to Sri Lankan consumers". Supporting over 825,000 subscribers today, Dialog's success has delivered positive dividends to many spheres of social development through the extension of telecommunications services to the most remote parts of the country, a case in point being the delivery of telecommunications services to the Northern and Eastern Provinces. Dialog's commitment to quality (the first telecommunications operator in South Asia to achieve ISO 9001 certification) and to excellence in business practices (Winner of National Quality Award in 2000 and Asia Pacific Quality Award in 2001) has further placed the company as a leading edge investment opportunity in the eyes of the international investor community. |
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