MANILA, Philippines?Smart Communications Inc., the country?s leading mobile network, expects the local telecommunications industry to perform better this year as the global economy improves and election campaign-related spending props up demand.

Napoleon Nazareno, president and CEO of Smart and its parent Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT), was optimistic about prospects for 2010, despite the maturing of the mobile telephony market.

?With the elections coming, and the economy also improving, it should be a better year for the industry as a whole,? Nazareno said.

Nazareno spoke to reporters on the sidelines of the induction last Friday of the new officers of the Economic Journalists Association of the Philippines.

The Philippines is one of the world?s most mature markets for telephony, which pertains to call and text services, with about an 80-percent penetration rate.

The broadband Internet space has been tagged as the next battleground for telecommunications firms in the Philippines.

But while he was hopeful that 2010 would turn out to be a better year for the industry, the official was mum on the performance of his own companies.

PLDT chair Manuel V. Pangilinan earlier said the country?s leading telecommunications provider may surpass its full-year core profit goal of about P41 billion for 2009.

This is slightly higher than the P40-billion net income the company posted in 2008.

PLDT, owned by Hong Kong-based First Pacific Holdings Ltd. and Japan?s NTT DoCoMo, is the country?s largest telecommunications firm.

The company ended 2009 with about 40 million subscribers, nearly double the number of subscribers of its nearest rival, Ayala-led Globe Telecom Inc., which has 23 million users on its network.

PLDT, through Smart also leads in the broadband Internet arena with over a million subscribers.