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VimpelCom may develop Asia expansion to tap growth
OAO VimpelCom may expand further in Southeast Asia after starting operations in Vietnam in the middle of summer, the head of Russia’s second-largest mobile-phone company said on Saturday.
“I see this international hub, this cluster of VimpelCom in Southeast Asia as a very promising one and I would not exclude that we shall try to strengthen our presence in this area,” CEO Boris Nemsic said in an interview in St. Petersburg.
The Moscow-based company began operations in Cambodia in May. VimpelCom and its domestic competitors OAO Mobile TeleSystems, its larger rival, and OAO MegaFon are looking to expand in new markets beyond Russia where the number of subscribers exceeds the population.
The domestic mobile-phone business has a “very good basis” to emerge from the crisis less affected than other industries, said Nemsic, who was attending an international economic forum in Russia’s second-biggest city.
“Third-generation services, sales of Blackberries and USB modems, broadband services, all of these things will boost the industry,” he said.
VimpelCom, which plans capital spending equivalent to 12-15 percent of consolidated revenue this year, will focus on third-generation network rollout and broadband development in its spending program, Nemsic said.
The company expects mobile phone use in Russia to increase in the second and third quarters after “overall sentiment among customers improves” and as mobile phones are traditionally used more in the summer, he said without elaborating.
thanhnien, bloomberg
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