Azerbaijan, Baku, 18 April / Trend / Last year, the investments in the sphere of human resources of large GSM operator of Azerbaijan Azercell Telecom exceeded $1.5mln, said the Head of Azercell Telecom, Halem Ates, on 18 April in Istanbul during the international telecommunication and IT conference 'Caspian Telecoms 2008' for Turkey, Caspian and Black Sea regions, Central Asia and Russia.
"Investing in human means investing in future of the country itself," he said.
On 19 Jan 1996, Azercell Telecom was established as a JV by Turkcell Iletisim Hizmetleri A.S. and the Azerbaijani Communications & IT Ministry. The company launched its operation on 15 December 1996, offering its clients mobile network services with post-payment. The contract on sale of the Azerbaijani government share in Azercell Telecom JV, the biggest mobile operator in the country, was signed in Feb in Baku. The Government share of 35.7% was sold to the co-founder of the company, the Turkish Azertell Telekommunikasyon Yatirim Dis Ticaret А.S at $180mln.
Azercell's capital totals $600mln. Being one of Azerbaijan's largest tax-payers, Azercell paid off some $400mln to the public budget and other State funds.
Azercell, a private company delivering mobile services on GSM standards in Azerbaijan, has more than 3.1mln subscribers.