29 February 2008
Belarus is better for business than Brussels, telecoms CEO says

Belarus is better for business than Brussels, Boris Nemsic, head of Telekom Austria Group, told the Financial Times in an interview.

"We have been much better treated in Belarus than in Brussels. That's not a political statement. That's a business statement," he said.

Mr. Nemsic was responding to comments by Viviane Reding, the European Union telecommunications commissioner, who called on the mobile phone industry last week to cut the costs of text messaging and mobile internet access for customers traveling abroad.

In October 2007, Telekom Austria bought a 70-percent stake in Mobile Digital Communications, Belarus’ first GSM provider also known as Velcom.

Mr. Nemsic made clear that he was satisfied with the way the Belarusian authorities had treated the company last year, according to the Financial Times.

But Mr. Nemsic, who was born in the former Yugoslavia, said the European Commission's moves to establish retail price controls reminded him of communism. "I lived under communism and I hated regulated prices," he said.

In August 2007, the Belarusian government sold its stake in Velcom to the co-owner, Cyprus-based Samauwi Brothers (SB) Telecom, for $556 million, according to official reports.

Few months later, Telekom Austria paid €730 million for 70 percent in Velcom’s Cyprus-based owner and has the right to buy the remaining 30-percent stake for €320 million in the fourth quarter of 2010. //BelaPAN