Globe eyes expanding to Myanmar under ASEAN single market

Globe Telecom Inc. is considering Myanmar as a potential expansion area and is seriously looking into the possibility of expanding operations within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) region, the company said in an emailed statement on Monday.

 

Myanmar is a potential expansion area for Globe Telecom, president and CEO Ernest Cu told participants during the recent Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) CEO Summit in Beijing, China said.

 

"There's already a telco player in Myanmar but there are other areas we could get involved in, like financial services and mobile advertising and these areas have potential," Cu said.

 

The Ayala-led company said the expansion plan within the ASEAN region will "complement relatively strong economic growth within the region.

 

"We will look for white space within ASEAN and Asia on where to leverage the skills we've developed overtime and we do think we've developed a decent telco business here in the Philippines," Cu said.

 

According to the statement, Cu earlier said the telco is considering the possibility of offering its mobile-based banking service to other Southeast Asian markets once the ASEAN integration is in place.

 

The company operates GCash, the mobile money service of subsidiary G-Xchange Inc., and BanKo, the mobile-based microfinance-focused savings bank, together with Bank of the Philippine Islands and Ayala Corp.

 

ASEAN, which groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, will establish a single market economy by 2015 to attract more investments and facilitate intra-ASEAN trade and investments.

 

The company also cited a PwC study in which 57 percent of CEO respondents said they are expanding in APEC economies over the next three to five years, and 67 percent said they plan to boost investments in the APEC region next year. – Kathryn Mae P. Tubadeza/VS, GMA News