Telenor signs agreement with Hungarian govt

Telenor Hungary is entering into a strategic partnership agreement with the Hungarian government that reinforces Telenor's long-term commitment to Hungary. The partnership also expresses Telenor's effort to stimulate economic growth and enhance the competitiveness of Hungarian businesses.

The agreement was signed by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and Kjell-Morten Johnsen, executive vice president of Telenor Group and Head of European Operations. The signing ceremony took place at Telenor House, Törökbálint, and among the many guests attending was Zsuzsa Németh, Hungary's Minister for National Development, Tove Skarstein, Ambassador of the Kingdom of Norway, and Mihály Varga, Hungary's Minister for National Economy.

"Telenor is one of Hungary's most active investors with about HUF 436 billion spent on network modernisation and voice and data service development during its history of nearly 20 years. In the next few years, Telenor plans to invest about HUF 10 billion in broadband mobile Internet network development to promote wide-spread Internet access, contribute to economic growth and bridge the digital divide for rural communities," the company said in its statement.

"Access to Internet opens up new opportunities, changes people's lives, and allows people to use their own creativity to achieve success," said Kjell-Morten Johnsen.

Christopher Laska, CEO of Telenor Hungary, welcomes the commitments made in the strategic partnership agreement, and underlines the importance of dialogue and mutual trust as well as the desire to establish a long-term partnership.

Laska also highlighted that Telenor has been one of Hungary's ten largest corporate taxpayers for 15 consecutive years. Today, Telenor Hungary employs more than 1,200 Hungarians and is a stable partner to about 500 Hungarian businesses.

At the event, Telenor formally opened its Hungarian shared services center, Telenor Common Operation that will offer technology services to the Telenor Group's European subsidiaries. The 450 employees of the new company will provide services in network and IT planning, implementation, management and maintenance for three countries of the region.