Jazz’s investment in Pakistan has surpassed $10.3 billion, according to Kaan Terzioglu, CEO of VEON Group. Throughout his two-day visit to Pakistan, the CEO reaffirmed the Group’s unwavering support for the government’s Digital Pakistan agenda.
In light of the current macroeconomic constraints, he also welcomed the assistance provided by PTA and the MoITT to prioritise the provision of connection to every Pakistani.
“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; bringing award-winning communication app BiP to Pakistan; and driving financial inclusion through Pakistan’s number one fintech JazzCash – VEON is committed to strengthening Pakistan’s digital ecosystem.”
During talks with key ICT industry players, the VEON delegation emphasised that a healthy and stable telecom sector, the basis of a country’s digital ecosystem, feeds nearly all sectors of the economy and is a precondition for the continual development of user service quality.
However, the telecom industry’s financial health is severely impacted by an unprecedented rise in the cost of operations: primarily fuel, electricity, interest rates, constantly increasing USD-pegged spectrum instalments, and most recently severe damages caused to critical digital infrastructure by floods to the point where it now threatens the telecom industry’s very survival.
The CEO of Jazz, Aamir Ibrahim, stated: “As part of the proposed emergency stimulus package, the telecom operators seek urgent policy intervention such as staggering licence payments over ten annual instalments instead of five, and suspending the industry’s annual contribution to the Universal Service Fund and Ignite.”
VEON is a worldwide digital operator that offers convergent connectivity and online services to more than 200 million clients in seven dynamic regions.
