Annual Report 2012, PDF - Axiata Group Berhad - Investor Relations

President &GCEO’S Business ReviewExponential growth of data traffic is expected to continuein 2013. To support this growth and reduce the overallnetwork cost, we are embarking on several strategicinitiatives. This includes actively pursuing in-countrycollaborations with other operators in the areas of siteand transmission sharing, such as the Celcom and DiGicollaboration in Malaysia which is well on track. Alongsidethis, we have several initiatives to further optimise costefficiencies including a group-wide network optimisationand service experience management centre. We areredesigning our Group IT blueprint which will enable theroll out of new services and the digitalisation of ourbusiness processes.We are very excited about the launch of LTE, the naturalprogression in our markets where 3G services have beenlong established. LTE technology’s vast superiority indata access, both in terms of speed and latency, willallow us to deliver more video-based content andapplications. At the same time, it will also lead to muchmore cost efficiency on a cost per MB basis.It has now been five years since the incorporation ofAxiata and we have proven yet again that we are ableto navigate through challenging and exacting times. Thetelecommunications industry is in a state of flux with ourtraditional business being impacted by new players. Wehave seen increased competition, especially in Indonesia,and this will continue to be one of our biggest challengesin 2013. Whilst this is a concern, we have assembledteams that have shown for the last many years thatthey are able to overcome such challenges and performwell amidst such conditions.ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSI would like to thank all our employees who have workedhard to get us to where we are today. I would also liketo thank our Board for their continued guidance, thegovernments and regulators for their co-operation andfacilitation, and our stakeholders – the shareholders,partners and media for their continued support. Most ofall, I would like to acknowledge our 215 million customersfor their continued support and loyalty.OUTLOOKMoving forward, the Group will remain focused ongrowing our core business whilst embarking on our longterm transformation strategy. 2013 will see a continuationof our aggressive investments in data, begun in 2011.Data and new services will have an impact on margins inthe short term, but we are confident that it will furtherstrengthen our leadership position in the longer term.DATO’ SRI JAMALUDIN IBRAHIMManaging Director/President & Group Chief Executive Officer24