Azercell is considered as the national mobile operator; despite the aggressive marketing campaign your competitors have undertaken you are the unquestioned leader in the market with 75% of market share. As the General Manager of Azercell, could you please share with us what have been the key drivers behind this success?

We are approaching nearly 2.1 million subscribers. Our success has been possible thanks to the belief of the shareholders in our country. We have made nearly half billion USD investment in the passed 10 years; this is a huge investment anywhere in the world, not only in Azerbaijan. Since the beginning, our strategy is to bring all the latest technologies and products from all over the world into the country; we want to be at the same level as Europe and USA technology wise. From a human resources point of view, we have the right strategy. We hired people from Azerbaijan. We invested in all these people and they are the ones who brought Azercell to the level where it is now. We have over 500 employees and among those we can count only 3 expatriates. So we invested in the local market, not only from a HR point of view, but also while developing Azercell we developed the market as well, we brought with us international standards and we pushed the market to develop in that direction. We have always been the first one to introduce new technologies or new incentives for our employees like for example providing them with a health insurance package; like this we have created our own environment. In this way, we pushed the market to grow. Obviously, a large focus of our strategy is on our customers, we have always been the first in bringing new things to the market and to apply international standards like a 24/7 call centre, front offices, GPRS and so on; moreover we were the first CIS country to receive an award for "Investor In People" (IPI)

Since you have been appointed at the head of this company How would you define your leadership style and what kind of a corporate culture are you fostering within the employees of Azercell?

The company is doing well and I didn't need to make major changes since I joined it. We can count on a strong and loyal team. Most of the employees have been here from the first day, they are incredibly loyal to Azercell as if it was their own child. 5 years ago, we decided to remove titles, no one has titles in the company. It was the first time that something like this was implemented in Azerbaijan, and it was a big challenge. It is not unusual for Azerbaijan to be the pioneer country in the implementation of new projects, this because people here are more flexible and open to improvement. We count on very experienced teams which are focused on responsibilities; we have a lot of projects on process within the group at the moment and the people regardless of their level, are participating in those projects and they see that the development of the company and the people doesn't not happen through titles.

In 2005, the company's investments rose to $108,5 million compared to $58,1 million in 2004. This is a very significant increase. Could you comment on the direction of these investments, and what are your expectations on their return?

As I said earlier, our strategy is to bring the latest technology in the country; therefore we mainly invest in technology. Technology includes different things such as geographical coverage, capacity and latest products and services. Especially in terms of capacity, we are investing a lot in the radio base stations and since the number of subscribers is increasing we need to increase our capacity as well. We applied for the 3G licence and we are now expecting to receive it, once we have this licence we will start investing in 3G. So this year we will end up with about 140 million USD of investments. We opened the first AZERCELL EXPRESS centers which is a sort of one stop shop; in addition to that we are also opening front offices in Baku and in the regions Focusing on the regions is certainly part of our strategy. In a first stage all the companies are focused on the capital, where there is about 50% of the entire population, but in a second stage you need to develop in the regions as well. In terms of coverage we are good in the regions; however there is always room for further development. Azercell will continue in increasing its penetration in regions.

A third operator is about to launch its services on the market to meet the soaring demand. When we interviewed John Armley from Azerfon he stated: " We have one general strategy: creating the competition on the market place". In the context of increasing competition, what kind of steps are you taking in order to maintain your leading position in the coming years?

Actually, I do not believe that there is no competition in this market. There are 3 mobile operators: Azercell, Bakcell and Catel. For the passed 10 years it seemed that price was the main driver for customers, but this is not the case anymore. Today people are more educated and they expect value for money. Our main strategy is to continue in focusing on improving the quality of products, services and technology; we will continue to grow with our partners.

Thinking about the future, what other challenges do you foresee for AZERCELL?

As a CIS country, most of the challenges that we face concern regulations. Our President launched the e-Government project which will end in 2008, and as a telecommunication company we are involved in it. At the moment our Ministry and Government are working on the liberalization of the IT&C sector. During the passed 6 months, we made some steps toward it like for instance the standardization of the inter-connection agreements within the operators. Moreover the Government revised all the international agreements and re-negotiated all the prices and 50 % discount for international calls. It will take time but little by little we are moving toward a liberal and free market. All those processes will speed up the development of the country. It is already more than 10 years that the technology has been in the country; people today are technology educated and they are ready for liberalization and free market.

The Government is keen on diversifying the economy and turning the black gold into human gold is on the top of the agenda. Now, Mr. Ates, in a broader context, based upon your personal experience as a Human Resources manager in "Turkcell" and Head of Human Resourses department in Fintur Holding", how would you evaluate Azerbaijan´s intellectual capital and the overall potential in the IT&C sector?

The human capital in the IT sector has a very high level of education and is very keen to development and improvement. Investing in people always gives you an immediate return on investment. I think last year we spent nearly 0.5 million in training people, it is very important for us. The biggest challenge I faced before was initiation, we have highly educated and experienced workers but it is difficult to turn them into managers. Luckily we don't face this problem here in Azerbaijan, this is our strength.

H.E Ali Abassov, whom we interviewed, emphasized the potential of Azerbaijan to become a regional high tech hub. He revealed ambitious plans with the creation of Free Economic Zones and a Technopark. Mr. Atesh, taking into consideration that you have worked in neighboring countries such as Moldavia, what do you think are the assets Azerbaijan can capitalize on to establish itself as a IT center of excellence in the region?

In the region I don't see any other alternative. Azerbaijan has all the advantages to become the IT hub: Azerbaijan enjoys an ideal geopolitical situation, has a highly educated workforce and the economy is developing very fast.

Where do you see further co-operation between Azeri and US IT companies?

I think the different companies need to understand how the market is growing and find their niche. GSM is the most developed sphere in the country, AZERCELL is leading in it, investors can come and corporate and not only with AZERCELL but with other companies as well. AZERCELL as a part of Fintur Holding has co-operations in 4 CIS countries and has always been a pioneer for anything new. If cooperation with AZERCELL is successful in Azerbaijan, we know that it will work in the other countries as well. There is always a risk, but we go for it believing that we will be successful.

AZERCELL is very active in the social level; how would you evaluate your social commitment to Azerbaijan?

Looking at our history, we have been operating here for 10 years; we are part of the country and the community. It is our responsibility to contribute to the development of the people. When we work on projects we think of the impact it will have on the people. Usually we prefer to work on long term projects with people, we don't want to be a simple sponsor; we favour partnerships. We are carrying out several "people based" projects. It is the first time in the region that we opened an AZERCELL Academy which is an education and training centre. Transfer our knowledge to other people is also part of our social responsibility.

During your career you have been working in different countries and companies; Is there a special contribution that you would like to bring to Azerbaijan and to AZERCELL?

As the CEO I have to be the main supporter of the team, I have to coach them and make sure they go in the right direction. This is what I tried to do in Moldova and this is what I will try to do in Azerbaijan. My position is to contribute to the overall success of the company. I need to assure that all the strategies of the group and company is deployed and going in the right direction. If my team has difficulties, my role is to support them. I am sure that when Azercell and its strategies are implemented in the right way the contribution of the country and people living here will come automatically.

Do you have a final message to send to the American audience?

The market is now ready for anything. We are always happy to see that foreign investors come to Azerbaijan and we will be pleased to provide them with any kind of information or support they need; this is why they should not hesitate in contacting us when they come to Azerbaijan.