Chairman of Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (BTRC) Muhammad Omar Farooq yesterday announced the growth figure of mobile phones in Bangladesh as a regional mobile summit targeting market expansion opened here.

Informa Telecoms and Media, a Singapore-based multinational in the information-technology sector, has organised the two-day 3rd South Asia Mobiles Summit 2006 at Sheraton Hotel.

In 2001 in Bangladesh, the growth rate of mobile phone subscribers was only .662 million and land telephone was .56 million, while in December 2005, the figures stood at 9.269 million and less than 1 million respectively, Farooq said while inaugurating the mobile meet.

"We are an important country in Asia-Pacific, especially in South Asian region, in terms of telecommunications... The figures show the dynamism of mobile telecommunications growth in Bangladesh," he said.

He said that around 30 million GSM handsets are annually sold across the Asia-Pacific region, and by the end of this year, one million of it would be sold in Bangladesh.

"The market indicates a large business of 300 million dollars in Bangladesh just from the sale of GSM handsets. And it needs no mention that the market of mobile telecommunications system also has a great potential here," Farooq said.

Although the tele-density in Bangladesh is only 9 percent now, the access to telecommunications is almost 100 percent, the BTRC chairman told the function, adding that Bangladesh is already gripped by telephony.

He said they could persuade the finance ministry not to add any new tax to mobile connection and GSM handsets. This year's budget proposed to reduce the tax on mobile-phone connection and GSM handsets from Tk 800 to Tk 500 and and Tk 300 to Tk 200 respectively.

Chairman of South Asia GSM Operators Forum Mehboob Chowdhury said South Asia is one of the fastest-growing markets in GSM sector, among which Bangladesh has the potential of more than 15- million subscriber growth this year.

"To achieve the 15-million target, we need some support from government such as reducing tax rates, promoting the sector and encouraging foreign investment in this industry," said Mehboob, also chief commercial officer (CCO) of Banlalink and chair of the programme.

He said the mobile-telecom companies' common agenda is developing the growth of telecommunications in the country so that the benefit of communications can be made available to the people.

The objectives of the two-day summit are to explore market-growth outlook in South Asia and the successful strategies that have spurred growth in the market thus far.