KIEV, Ukraine (AP)-Ukraine expressed regret last week that Motorola Inc. dropped plans for a $500 million investment in a Global System for Mobile communications network.
Motorola’s Network Management Group and its local partner, Ukrainian Radio Systems, was one of three groups awarded licenses earlier this month through a tender. The company had already invested $2 million in Ukraine and had planned to spend $500 million during the next 15 years to develop a mobile phone system.
Motorola announced last week it was pulling out of the project, calling itself a victim of a volatile business climate that has limited direct foreign investment in Ukraine to a meager $1.4 billion since 1991.
In a written statement released by its Kiev office, the company said, “the ever-changing nature of the terms and conditions of this award made it undesirable for Motorola NMG to continue its involvement in the project.”
Motorola said it received and paid for a GSM license in 1992 and should not have had to take part in the tender.
Roman Shpek, head of Ukraine’s National Agency for Reconstruction and Development, said he was “very sorry” about the pullout. But he noted that two other GSM operators remain and said Ukraine “cannot change the rules of the game.”
