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South Korea's biggest fixed-line carrier - Korea Telecom and Japanese Sumitomo Corp expand into Central Asia by acquiring together 85 percent of two firms East Telecom and Super iMax; 15 percent will belong to ‘Uzbektelecom’. The companies plan to offer high-speed internet services based on WiMax technologies (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) in 12 Uzbek cities from next year. East Telecom and Super iMax will aim to achieve combined annual sales of 61 million dollars in 2012, according to Sumitomo. Links to sources: http://www.japancorp.net/Article.Asp?Art_ID=15934 ; http://www.asiamedia.ucla.edu/article.asp?parentid=80766 Cnews.ru considers Korea-Japanese investment reasonable despite of the possible risks in the local investment market. It refers to following factors: telecommunication market with population of 26 mln. has high growth potential; government of Uzbekistan strongly supports ICT development, which plays a big role in the local business market. And finally, timing is a factor, as the recent crisis in foreign relations with Western countries is evident. East telecom owns a number of infrastructure facilities in Uzbekistan, provides telecommunication and Internet services and has license for further construction of telecom infrastructure in the country. Link to article in Russian: http://telecom.cnews.ru/news/top/index.shtml?2007/10/31/272801