Page 24 - bne_Tech_05_2019

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May 2019 www.intellinews.com I Page 24
Bulgarian-owned Albania Telecom Invest takes over Telekom Albania
Greek telecommunications company OTE, major- ity owned by Deutsche Telekom, said on May 8 it has completed the sale of its entire stake in Tel- ekom Albania to the Bulgarian company Albania Telecom Invest for a total consideration of €50m.
The sale of the 99.75% stake was approved by Albania’s electronic and postal communications authority in March.
“Hellenic Telecommunications Organization (“OTE”), following its January 16, 2019 Press Release, announces, that the sale of its entire stake in Telekom Albania Sh.A. to Albania Telecom Invest AD, was completed yesterday,” the company said in a press release on its website.
Albania Telecom Invest AD is controlled by Spas Roussev, controlling shareholder of the Bulgarian incumbent telecom operator Vivacom, and by Elvin Guri, an Albanian-Bulgarian investor.
Telekom Albania was known under the AMC brand until 2015. AMC was part of the Greek COSMOTE Group from 2000. It joined the Deutsche Telekom group in 2008.
Uzbekistan’s CLICK mobile payment system starts cooperation with HUMO
The Uzbekistan-based CLICK mobile payment system has started a cooperation with Uzbeki- stan’s recently launched national retail payment system, HUMO.
The move made CLICK the first mobile and inter- net banking system connected to HUMO.
HUMO started issuing cards on May 1 - their clients will now have the ability to carry out elec- tronic payments by connecting cards to their CLICK accounts.
HUMO advertises itself as offering advantages such as the ability to make payments abroad and having “contactless payments based on NFC technology”.
Czech Republic may tax multinational digital companies
Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis plans to impose a special digital tax on multinationals, as quoted by daily Lidove Noviny. “We will implement a digital tax for multinational companies which do business in the Czech Republic but do not reside here,” Babis said.
He added that the level is still being discussed with the Finance Minister Alena Schillerova (ANO). “We have been discussing a budget every week several hours. She has the task of looking for savings in all sectors. Of course, we are also talking about income,” Babis said.
This year, the state budget is expected to end with a deficit of CZK40bn (€1.6bn), despite a surplus of CZK2.9bn (€113.4mn) in 2018, the second best result since 1996.
Babis already announced his support for the introduction of a special tax for Internet giants like Facebook, Apple or Google, at the EU and the League of Arab States summit in Egypt in February 2019. “The digital tax certainly yes. I also supported this at the European Council because transnational companies that do business with us do not pay enough taxes,” Babis said, adding that the Finance Minister has been watching Austria that plans to implement its own digital tax very closely.
Uzbekistan unblocks multiple media websites
The head of Uzbekistan's Information and Mass Communication Agency, Komil Allamjonov, said in a Facebook post on May 10 that the Central Asian country has restored access to a dozen news and human rights websites.