touch brings media personnel together at its annual Iftar dinner
Haddad: The company reinforces its leadership position with a staggering market share of 54%
Harb: The Political scene in Lebanon would be incomplete without the fourth estate, the media
Beirut, June 21, 2016: Under the patronage and in the presence of the Telecommunications Minister Boutros Harb, touch, the leading mobile telecommunications and data operator in Lebanon, managed by Zain Group, hosted its annual Iftar dinner in honor of the media and the press at Le Yacht Club at Zaitunay Bay. The Iftar was attended by the head of the Press Syndicate Aouni al-Kaaki, Head of Editors Syndicate Elias Aoun, President of the Press Club Bassam Abu Zeid, as well as a large crowd of media personnel.
Mrs. Lara Haddad, Vice Chairman of Mr. Bader Al-Kharafi at touch, gave a speech which outlined touch’s most recent achievements, “The most prominent of which is reaching a staggering market share of 54%, the highest since its inception in Lebanon, claiming the majority of mobile users in Lebanon”. She noted that “the growth of the share, is the result of touch customer’s confidence in the company’s services and their satisfaction with everything that it has offered them so far, meeting their every need”.
As for the company’s most prominent projects, Haddad explained that “the company has begun to expand on the implementation of the fourth generation network 4.5G Advanced across Lebanon, installing fourth generation equipment and sites in major cities outside Beirut. In the coming months it will proceed with this expansion process to include all Lebanese territories, ensuring that it offers all its customers the best experiences through its network."
Haddad also stressed on the importance of having the company provide a unique customer experience across all communication channels. These efforts have so far yielded positive results, with studies showing continuous improvement and a definite increase in customer satisfaction with touch’s services.
Haddad touched as well on the significance of partnering with the local community, and on touch’s efforts to enhance its corporate social responsibility program “Positive touch”, which focuses on supporting and creatively addressing various humanitarian, social, environmental and cultural issues. Haddad also noted the media’s role in this regard, saying that “touch believes that the media are an essential component for the support and success of its CSR initiatives and believes in their capacity to reach the desired positive change in the Lebanese society”.
In his speech, Telecommunications Minister Boutros Harb said, "We live our national lives and experience our national unity together by sharing our holidays, our joys, our dreams and unfortunately, our nightmares as well.”
He greeted all present media personnel, whether they work in print, radio or television, pointing out that the political scene in Lebanon would be incomplete without them, given that they constitute the fourth estate. He added: "I salute the head of the Press Syndicate, the head of the Editors’ Syndicate as well as each and every media persona in Lebanon. I am truly proud to know that Lebanese journalists can write against the authorities and still avoid prison, and that media personnel can speak their mind and avoid execution. Lebanon is a democratic country that has been nurtured with a love for freedom. If we deny this freedom, the country’s sense of purpose and essence would be forever lost.”
Harb considered that the Iftar was the perfect occasion to salute senior management at touch and its mother company Zain, which has been successfully operating one of two mobile networks in Lebanon. He said: “If given the opportunity to launch the international tender for the management and operations of the telecom operators in Lebanon - and I know none of you are ignorant of the reason why the tender failed – Zain is most definitely qualified if it continues to offer acceptable prices and maintains its good services. Furthermore, I must take this opportunity to address the media personnel present and say that I thank God that the media exists in Lebanon, and that it is largely distinctive when compared to the media in other Arab countries, especially since it is free. Nonetheless, this freedom comes with a responsibility of investigating properly before issuing any criticism or taking any stand. Thus, I will address you all, without speaking to anyone in particular, keeping in mind that I am a Lebanese man that is keen on maintaining the values, ethics and rules of cooperation between us. Should the media reveal facts and highlight deals or brokerages, they must always keep in mind that it is not their role to act as a judge or prosecutor, sentencing and condemning people, because this power is vested in the third estate alone, which is one of the four powers. It is only the judiciary that judges the guilty from the innocent. The power of the third estate deprives us as ministers, deputies and media personnel of the right to prosecute people. Regardless of our feedback on the performance of some judges, we still take pride in Lebanon’s impartial judiciary who have proven themselves capable of achieving justice in Lebanon.”
He added: “I would like to say that in the midst of the hype around the Ministry of telecommunications, and after my long experience in this sector, which was not supposed to exceed four months but has entered its third year mark, I discovered the following: what is ultimately predominant in dealing with public affairs is the private sector, and some get upset if one Ministry succeeded or made important achievements. This is especially true now that State institutions are collapsing, beginning from the Presidency which has been in vacuum for two years, the Parliament which is in malfunction, and the Council of Ministers which finds it almost impossible to take any decision to keep pace with the needs of the Lebanese people and the development of our country. Amid this gloomy atmosphere The Ministry of telecommunications has been able to progress and make great achievements, planning and looking towards the future and interests of the Lebanese people. Through this futuristic mindset, vision 2020, a digital communications plan in Lebanon came to life, a vision which includes the implementation of fourth generation technologies by the end of 2016 in all Lebanese territories. This constitutes a very advanced step, which may have bothered many people who have not been able to make similar achievements, in addition to the fact that the plan includes the extension of the optical fiber network across Lebanon, making Lebanon fully equipped for the fourth generation and the fifth generation after that. Lebanon will become at the top of the list of knowledge economies around the world that lead in terms of the development of telecommunication and sharing information. This is a source of pride for us, but a source of disturbance for others, driving them towards tainting the Ministry’s image, a ministry that has true hard working soldiers who work diligently and strive for success. This is both at the level of the ministry’s different departments and at the level of the telecom operators themselves which are overseeing the development of the telecom sector. With God’s help we will continue to do our job despite the disturbances, and we will continue to succeed no matter how much they bet on our failure. Our work speaks for itself and there is no need to publicize it.”
He concluded by saying: “I’m happy to tell you all, that we kept our promise and we are committed to have the fourth generation available and at the disposal of all the Lebanese across Lebanon by the end of 2016. I will reiterate my commitment this evening and urge our telecom operators to make this commitment a reality before the end of the year.” He announced that “the Ministry of telecommunications ceased following up on its achievements because of the harsh campaign launched against it.” He declared that, in the face of this campaign, he has decided to announce these plentiful achievements and start taking advantage of them. “Our technical teams are on the ground following up on their operations, and we will be making every effort towards achieving Vision 2020, regardless if I remained a minister or we managed to elect a president – which hopefully we will – another government will take over and will proceed with this solid plan. Lebanon will move from this time of backwardness into stages of modernity and technological advancement. We are entering a new world, why not make sure we make the most graceful entry? If we do not improve ourselves we will remain underdeveloped, but if we work towards our own enhancement, we will enter a world of technological innovation in telecommunications. This new world creates social, cognitive, economic and trade relations of a different kind, making the world difficult and easy at the same time. Any State that fails to keep up with this evolution is doomed to stay in the world of backwardness and underdevelopment. Lebanon, which was one of the pioneers of the world’s Renaissance and a leading democracy in the Arab world, will continue to be a leader of positive change in the region and the world. I hope that the media among us tonight will follow up on our work objectively, and we look forward to hearing both their objective criticism and praise. I cannot and will not accept false and unjust attacks on the Ministry; this is an official statement that I make before you all today”.
I hope that we will always meet in happy occasions like these. I also pray that the conscience of those who are halting Lebanon’s progress and political system will finally awaken. I truly look forward to a Lebanon we are all proud of, a country that is a pioneer and leader in the Middle East.”