Choucair: Slew of measures to cut costs, raise ministry revenue.

Summary: Telecommunications Minister Mohamed Choucair Tuesday announced a series of measures designed to cut costs and increase revenues at the Telecommunications Ministry by millions of dollars.

BEIRUT: Telecommunications Minister Mohamed Choucair Tuesday announced a series of measures designed to cut costs and increase revenues at the Telecommunications Ministry by millions of dollars. In a statement issued by his press office, the minister said the measures included reducing maintenance contracts by between 10 and 20 percent; reducing the value of budget allocations for the two cellphone companies, Alfa and touch, by 50 percent; increasing the state's share from value-added service contracts from 25 percent to 50 percent; reducing the rental contracts for establishing towers used by the two cellular companies by between 20 percent and 30 percent; and working on the launch of new value-added services.

"Minister Choucair is very keen on controlling spending in the Telecommunications Ministry, and actively follows up on everything in detail in an effort to improve the ministry's revenues and increase productivity," the statement said.

It affirmed that the minister "will continue in his efforts and will have several promising initiatives in the coming period, which comes within the framework of a comprehensive and integrated vision for the development of the telecommunications sector in Lebanon and increasing its competitiveness."

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