Weekly Report - 26 August 2003

COLOMBIA | New Telecom counts its chickens. Confident of having won the test of wills on the labour front, the Uribe administration is now painting a rosy future for the new Empresa Colombia Telecomunicaciones - also known as Telecom, just like the old Empresa Nacional de Telecomunicaciones, whose liquidation was ordered two months ago [WR-03-23]. Minus two-thirds of its predecessor's workforce, the new Telecom will serve 940 of the country's 1,070 municipalities, starting off with 64% of the national long-distance market and 33% of the international one (the remains of the monopoly the old Telecom enjoyed until five years ago). This, says company president Alfonso Gómez Palacio, will translate into an operating profit this year of Col$230bn (US$80m) as against the Col$470bn (US$162m) losses that had been projected for the old Telecom.

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