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Abu Dhabi Group becomes a ringer

ISLAMABAD - THE Abu Dhabi Group this week became a leader with its investment that will ring bells in millions of homes across Pakistan.

Led by Shaikh Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahayan, a popular name in Pakistan, the Abu Dhabi Group (ADG) has now launched Warid Telecom (Pvt) Ltd, a state-of- the-art cellular phone service in Pakistan. Warid has brought in $400 million investment in Pakistan. With this, ADG's overall investments in Pakistan now total $774 million-making it one of the largest foreign investors in this country.

ADG's other investments are in banking, real estate, and telecom, including Long Distance & International (LDI) and Wireless Local Loop (WLL) telephony. ADG has invested $ 170 million in the most modern and fast expanding Bank Alfalah Ltd. and its affiliates, $104 million in the huge United Bank Ltd., and $100 million in Wateen Telecom (Pvt) Ltd. Bank Alfalah is a fully licensed commercial bank with 100 branches in 28 major Pakistani cities. It has made a sound niche in consumer banking, auto and house loans.

United Bank Ltd. is the country's second biggest bank, with nearly 1,100 branches, including 23 international branches in UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Yemen, Egypt, Iran, Switzerland, UK and USA.

Warid Cellular has just been launched by President Pervez Mushrraf. It goes into full operations in 28 cities from tomorrow.

President Mushrraf marked Warid's opening by decorating Shaikh Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahayan with the country's one of the highest awards of Hilal-i-Pakistan. He said: "The award has been conferred on Shaikh Mubark in recognition of his outstanding contributions to promoting economic relations between Pakistan and the UAE. Sheikh Nahyan is a friend and a brother and has led efforts aimed at cementing fraternal relationship between the two countries." He said, the award is a "well-deserved acknowledgement of Sheikh Mubarak's contribution to promoting investment in Pakistan.

"ADG has invested in Pakistan's banking, real estate and telecom sectors and the award marks Pakistan's recognition of Shaikh Mabarak's services for fostering strong commercial and investment bonds between two countries," the President said.

Shaikh Mubarak thanked the government of Pakistan for its support and said, "Al-Warid will extend its facilities to inaccessible areas and majority of population living in rural areas."

Shaikh Mubarak, well known for his interest to preserve cultural heritage has invested a large amount in restoration of Lahore's historic Shaahdin Manzil (building). It is, once again, a part of Lahore's mainstream cityscape.

Describing Shaikh Mubarak as Pakistan's trusted friend" Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz expressed his great pleasure for his "selecting Pakistan as a destination for investment in the telecom" and other sectors. "In Pakistan's this era of liberalisation of the economy. Pakistan is now an extremely attractive and viable place to invest. The trust and confidence shown by ADG by investing in banking and financial sector of Pakistan has also been a significant contribution to our economic growth."

"We hope, after Warid, Shaikh Mubarak will make more investments in our other sectors. With Warid becoming the sixth cellular operator in this country, is a clear evidence of the absorption capacity of the sector, and confidence of the investors," Aziz said.

Backed by its partners Ericsson, Warid promises to raise communications and innovation to the next level. Customers will get more options better quality services, competitive tariff, and numerous innovative products.

Warid says its service will "provide the customers, the very best." It will have "the most powerful SIM card in the country. Our 64Ksim offers you the control and flexibility to store upto 500 phone numbers and 50SMS messages, along with a special phone menu."

"If you've always got something to say, it's twice as nice to be on Warid pay monthly right now. We double your inclusive minutes and texts every month for six months, "the company says.

What will be the future telecom scene in Pakistan? Awais Ahmad Leghari, Minister of IT welcomed Shaikh Mubarak for investment in the most lucrative telecom sector."

He said, planned multi-billion dollar investment will raise teledensity, of fixed line and cellular phones, from the present 10 per cent to 25 per cent in the next fives years.

Cellular services now provide 10.5 million phones — almost double the fixed line number. Half a million users, each month, are buying up phones since August 2004. Mobile penetration is 6.95 per cent out of a total teledensity of 10.0 per cent. Prime Minister Aziz, says cellular and telecom expansion, with a major role of the private sector, is helping "a faster GDP growth." Already, cellular phones have seen a 110 per cent growth over the last 10 months. The number of cellular phone users is growing by 9.0 per cent a month. The telecom regulator Pakistan Telecom Authority (PTA) projects, cellphones will increase to 15 million by December 2005.

New investment in telecom sector is projected at $ 8.0 billion in the next two years. With the consumer base expanding hugely, this phenomenal growth offers Warid and telecom operators a good business for years to come.