Kuwaiti mobile operator Mobile Telecommunications Company (Zain) will cut its 15,500 workforce by about 2,000 staff through to 2011 under a new revamp program aimed at cutting costs and boosting its margin, its chief said on Monday.

Zain's new programme ‘Drive2011’ will help propel the company towards its 2011 target of becoming one of the 'top 10' mobile telecommunications operators in the world, said Zain Group CEO Dr Saad Al Barrak at a strategic meeting with senior executives from all 22 African and Middle East operations.

'This program, which comes at a vital stage of the company’s 3x3x3 vision that commenced in 2003, will maximize economies of scale and realize significant efficiencies, allowing Zain to provide communication services such as voice, SMS and data at an optimum cost structure.'

Drive2011 is expected to improve Zain’s operating margin by 5 per cent within 12 months and provide the company the necessary thrust to capture the future growth potential of the markets in which it operates.

The Zain Group will align its head office and operations structures in accordance with the new operating model.

'This will result in Zain reducing its current 15,500 global workforce by 2,000 - a 13 per cent reduction across the board. Zain operations in Iraq, Jordan, Kenya, Kuwait, Malawi and Sierra Leone have already begun the process,' Dr Al Barrak noted.

However, majority of the 2,000 staff would continue working for Zain as outsourced contractors, he said.

It will focus on customer facing services and commercial activities while centralizing or outsourcing some back office/non-core functions to strategic partners, he said.

“Drive2011 is a natural consequence of Zain’s evolutionary journey. It was planned soon after the launch of our ACE strategy in 2007 and is a structured and timetabled approach to maximizing efficiency,” Dr Al Barrak explained.

“We will create genuine market differentiation through our services and deliver on our Zain brand promise of ‘A wonderful world’. This will be achieved through a combination of managed outsourcing, centralization and leveraging capabilities, as well as training and development for our personnel, all of which will improve our operating efficiencies.”

In a move aimed at tackling the challenges ahead and attaining other 2011 targets of 150 million customers and a $6 billion Ebitda, Dr Al Barrak also announced a major revamp at both group and country operation level.

Kuwait's biggest mobile operator, which has been spending billions to expand to 23 countries in the Middle East and Africa, said job cuts were part of a revamp that includes outsourcing work, adding that the cuts will affect all units.

Zain said in March it would cut 141 jobs in Kenya as part of a pre-planned restructuring. For 2009 the company has previously targeted Ebita of $4.7 billion.

Last month, the firm said it was in advanced talks with banks to arrange a new loan to refinance a $2.5 billion Islamic loan it signed in 2007, which is due to expire on July 27.-TradeArabia News Service