Orascom chief: North and South Korea will reunite

Orascom chief: North and South Korea will reuniteCairo - The head of the Orascom groups, Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawiris, said Tuesday that his investments in North Korea were forward-looking as he expects the peninsula to be united.

Orascom Telecom Holdings runs a mobile network in the isolated north, and Sawiris estimated it had nearly 80,000 subscribers in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, which he described as a "miracle."

"We sometimes expect miracles," said Sawiris, who made the list of Forbes 50 wealthiest people in the world last year.

"Life will change, we believe," he said, commenting on his investment in the communist north of the peninsula.

"Because if you told someone 25 years ago that the Berlin Wall will fall or that West and East Germany will unite into one country, they would have thought you are crazy," the businessman told reporters.

"We believe north and south (Koreas) will unite one day," Sawiris said during a press conference.

He was handing over the reigns as chief executive officer of most parts of Orascom Telecom to Khaled Bichara, who was serving as chief operating officer. Sawiris will maintain his role as chairman and will continue to manage the firm's business in Algeria.

Orascom, which has operations in Africa, Asia and some industrialized countries, says it has 80 million mobile customers. (dpa)