BeST to receive USD 50 million credit from government of China for building its network :: Charter'97 :: News

The cellular communications operator – closed company Belarusian telecommunications network (the JSC BeST) will receive a USD 50 million preferential credit from the government of China for building its network, BeST director general Mikhail Demchenko told a press conference today.

“The project totals about USD 200 million. Its value can increase or decrease depending on the amount of work the Belarusian contractors will perform”, Mikhail Demchenko underlined. “The rest of the funds will be credits of the Chinese banks. However, their interest rates will be considerably lower than usual”, the manager noted.

Mikhail Demchenko has informed that at present the company Alcatel Shanghai Bell Co., Ltd (China), which won the tender, has supplied advance equipment worth of USD 10 million. It will be used to fulfill top-priority tasks including covering the territory of Minsk.

BeST will start revenue servicing of the cellular network in November-December 2005.

The closed company BeST was registered in November 2004. It was founded by the research institute of automation means AGAT and the republican unitary enterprise Beltelecom with the shares of 75 per cent and 25 per cent correspondingly. On March 24, 2005 the operator got a license to render services in the communications sphere using the GSM technology.