Thu Mar 18, 2010
* Deal covers services, equipment for network expansion
* China, Cambodia sign agreements on telecoms, agriculture
By Prak Chan Thul
PHNOM PENH, March 18 (Reuters) - China's Huawei Technologies [HWT.UL] signed a deal worth $200 million on Thursday with Cambodia's biggest mobile phone operator, MobiTel, to expand its network coverage, a MobiTel executive said.
The deal will see Huawei, the world's No. 2 maker of telecommunications equipment, provide services and equipment to MobiTel to boost its coverage in Cambodia.
"The negotiations have been held for years," a senior executive at MobiTel told Reuters, declining to be identified because he was not authorised to speak to the media. "The value of the agreement is $200 million," he said.
The agreement was signed during a three-day visit to Cambodia by Chinese Deputy Prime Minister Hui Liangyu.
MobiTel is the biggest of Cambodia's seven mobile phone operators, with its 2.5 million subscribers accounting for 67 percent of the market.
MobiTel is a unit of Royal Group, a business conglomerate owned by local tycoon Kith Meng. Royal Group owns companies dealing in financial services, hotels, real estate, television and restaurant franchises.
Hui Liangyu also signed two agreements with Cambodia's agriculture and telecommunications ministries to "strengthen cooperation" between the countries. Details of the agreements were not made available.
China is currently Cambodia's biggest source of foreign direct investment, having so far pumped $4.3 billion into its nascent economy, which grew in double digits for four successive years prior to the global economic slowdown.
(Editing by Martin Petty)
((prak.chanthul@thomsonreuters.com; +855 2 399 2102; Reuters Messaging:
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news.feedback.asia@thomsonreuters.com )) Keywords: CAMBODIA CHINA/TELECOMS
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