ISLAMABAD: Jazz’s investment in Pakistan has crossed $ 10.3 billion, said VEON Group CEO Kaan Terzioglu. During his two-day visit to Pakistan, the CEO reiterated the Group’s full support towards the government’s Digital Pakistan vision.
He also appreciated the support extended by PTA and the MoITT to prioritise the provision of connectivity to every Pakistani given the current macro-economic challenges.
“Continuous investment from VEON whether it’s establishing Pakistan’s largest tier-III certified data centre ‘Jazz Digital Park’; developing the largest homegrown OTT Platform Tamasha; launching state-of-the-art cloud platform Garaj; brining award-winning communication app BiP to Pakistan; and driving financial inclusion through Pakistan’s number 1 fintech JazzCash – VEON is fully committed to strengthen Pakistan’s digital ecosystem.”
During the meetings with various ICT industry stakeholders, the VEON delegation also highlighted that a healthy and stable telecom sector, the foundation of a country’s digital ecosystem, fuels virtually all sectors of the economy and is a prerequisite for consistent improvement in service quality for users.
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However, the telecom industry’s financial health is severely impacted due to an unprecedented rise in the cost of operations: primarily fuel, electricity, interest rates, constantly increasing USD pegged spectrum installments, and most recently severe damages caused to critical digital infrastructure by floods to the extent that now it threatens the very survival of telecom sector.
On this occasion, CEO Jazz Aamir Ibrahim said: “As a part of the proposed emergency stimulus package, the telecom operators seek urgent policy intervention such as staggering of license payments over 10 annual installments instead of five, and suspension of industry’s annual contribution towards the Universal Service Fund and Ignite.”
VEON is a global digital operator that currently provides converged connectivity and online services to over 200 million customers in seven dynamic markets.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022