More Other Countries Stories

Quarter’s ICT sector is replete with market opportunities and Orange Business Services (News - Alert), the business services arm of France Telecom-Orange, is one of the companies aspiring for the share of the pie in this high growth market. As part of an aggressive growth strategy in the EMEA region, Orange Business Services launched a joint venture company in Qatar on Jan. 8, 2013.

The launch was announced at a black tie event at Hilton Doha and attended by a long list of Qatari who’s who and senior representatives of Orange Business Services and the extended business community.

Established in partnership with Sheikh Fahad Bin Ghanem [Al Abdul Rahman] Al Thani as the majority shareholder, the new business entity--- named EGN LLC--- will trade in Quarter as Orange Business Services, a news release revealed. The new joint venture company will be dedicated to large systems integration programs and operations. The company has some ambitious investment programs under its sleeve, the news release further revealed.

The official launch of Orange Business Services in Qatar took place at the Hilton Doha, on Jan. 8, 2013 at a reception hosted by Sheikh Fahad Bin Ghanem [Al Abdul Rahman] Al Thani and Vivek Badrinath (News - Alert), CEO of Orange Business Services, and attended by Qatari VIPs and senior representatives of Orange Business Services and the extended business community.

At present, Quarter is one of the fastest growing economies in the world. The country has been named the host of 2022 FIFA World Cup finals and worked out a strategic national vision to diversify the economy by 2030.

Given all these, it seems only discreet on the part of Orange Business Services, which has a strategic focus on emerging markets where it seeks to generate one billion euros (approximately USD 1,304,500,000) in revenues by 2015, to select Quarter as the destination for its latest and one of the most ambitious business ventures. It follows the launch of a new local company in Saudi Arabia in 2012 under a growth strategy focused on the developing markets in MEA.

Qatar has already developed capable ICT infrastructure in the areas of e-government and border security. The new joint venture company is expected to bring the global experience and capabilities of France Telecom (News - Alert)-Orange to Qatar.

Antoine Farah has been appointed the general manager of the company in Qatar. Armed with a team of senior professionals, he will be responsible to qualify, design and build targeted projects. The new team will comprise program directors, senior architects, project managers, subject matter experts and operations directors, and will focus on target business sectors including oil and gas, government sector projects, telecom company systems integrators, new cities and large infrastructure projects.

“We are delighted to announce the launch of this joint venture company in Qatar, which comes as Orange is accelerating its growth strategy in the Middle East, following another strong performance in 2012. This new local company is a clear sign of our commitment to the Qatari market and to developing the ICT infrastructure of Qatar by offering and supporting new and advanced ICT services and solutions to the public and private sectors,” senior vice president of Emerging Markets and Indirect at Orange Business Services Philippe Koebel commented in a statement.

Recently France Telecom-Orange and the other members of the Africa Coast to Europe (ACE) consortium announced in a ceremony held in Banjul, The Gambia, that the ACE submarine cable is now operational for the first phase linking France and Sao Tomé & Principe. The cable, which will extend as far as South Africa for the second phase, provides connectivity to broadband internet in Africa and will add extra capacity to existing international networks.

Want to learn more about the latest in communications and technology? Then be sure to attend ITEXPO Miami 2013, Jan 29- Feb. 1 in Miami, Florida.  Stay in touch with everything happening at ITEXPO (News - Alert). Follow us on Twitter.