United Kingdom (UK)-based BT has announced a new phase of investments in Asia Pacific, Turkey, the Middle East and Africa (AMEA), with South Africa a key part of its expansion in high growth markets.
The company said the new phase of investments will build on earlier investments in Turkey, the Middle East and Africa in 2012, after BT brought those regions into one integrated market to better serve its customers.
As part of its expansion, BT will hire new staff in South Africa, as well as countries such as China, India, Malaysia and Turkey. Field services will also be delivered directly by BT engineers in South Africa.
“By hiring more people in the region, launching more competitive capabilities across a larger number of countries and delivering a differentiated service experience, BT will be in a strong position to capture opportunities in a total AMEA market evaluated at around GBP32 billion (US$52 billion),” the company said, adding the region’s combined geography is expected to generate 44 per cent of the global gross domestic product (GDP) growth by 2025.
“In 2010 we launched our first phase of investments to accelerate our expansion in Asia Pacific. This has allowed us to generate strong growth in the region and to nearly triple the number of new Asia Pacific customers signing with us,” said Luis Alvarez, chief executive officer (CEO) of BT Global Services.
“We are investing again to further grow our business, in a wider region combining Asia Pacific with Turkey, the Middle East and Africa. We are doing this in close consultation with our customers. A new generation of regional multinational companies look to us to help them grab global growth opportunities, and the more established multinationals are determined to invest for growth in this vast region.
“We help them succeed and reap the benefits of instant globalisation by aligning our investments to their requirements, and providing them with our market-leading portfolio of networked IT services wherever they need them.”
