Telecoms target flexible working trend

Competition is heating up among Korean telecom carriers over the nascent market for smart working systems as a growing number of corporations promote flexible work, writes the Korea Herald.

LG Uplus says it will offer related business solutions to small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs). The move came after KT, a fixed-line service provider, unveiled a smart working system for both its employees and the market.

Smart working is being promoted, even by the government, in a bid to innovate the way Koreans work and reduce commuting hours.

As its dreams of making it big in the broadband segment were soon on the floor due to the lack of wireless spectrum in India, Tata Communications is now busy redrawing its plans for the SME sector, reports Top News.

The company is trying to cash in on the Indian SME sector, which the company reckons has a lot of potential to grow.

Vinod Kumar, president and chief operating officer at Tata Communications, says beyond a certain limit, it does not make business sense to buy spectrum and hence it would be a driver for loss if the company goes for the deal.

The UAE's Ministry of Finance called upon the country's banks to step up lending to SMEs through targeted schemes, states Khaleej Times.

The ministry's call to boost bank lending comes in the wake of a finding that suggested SME lending in the GCC is only 2% of total bank lending in the region while in non-GCC countries it stands at 14%.

Last year, minister of economy Sultan bin Saeed Al Mansouri initiated the drawing up of a national plan to prompt the SME sector to play a bigger role in fuelling economic growth.