Over the past six years, Zain Group has been a significant contributing party to the corporate strategy guide for network operators in the MEA region. From its aggressive M&A activities at times, to its technology leadership and branding prowess, Zain has become a bellwether for operators across the region. Bashar Arafeh, Zain Group’s chief commercial officer gives his perspective of the main trends currently facing the sector from an operator perspective in the MEA

Arafeh’s main message to network operators is not to be myopic. He says telcos are in the telecom business not the mobile operator business and as such they should be open to new business opportunities

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Francesco Burelli, principal of Value Partners in London and Zoran Vasiljev, managing director of Value Partners (MEA), offer their insight into the opportunities that exist in the mobile payments sphere

Zoran Vasiljev, managing director of Value Partners (MEA)

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The man who has been heavily involved in engineering Etisalat’s strategic development over the past 10 years believes the telecom sector is at an inflection point where the entrance of new players into the telecom sphere is resulting in the future of the sector becoming more of an unknown quantity – a ‘shared uncertainty’. Ahmad Julfar, Etisalat’s group chief operating officer, believes more business opportunities than threats exist in the evolving world of telecom, with his focus being on ensuring Etisalat delivers on those prospects

Julfar, an Etisalat stalwart, says the telco needs to remain as dynamic in its outlook as the telecom sector has been of late in order to continue succeeding

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