OSAKA -- Kazuo Asada, president of NTT West Corp., urged employees of his reorganized company and its 49 new subsidiaries Wednesday to bolster solidarity in order to ensure competitiveness based on quick decision-making.

"I want you to keep in mind that we could end up losing the ability to make quick decisions if our group companies act without coordination," Asada reckoned.

Asada issued a broadcast address to the firm's branches as the 49 new arms formed by NTT West and the reorganized parent company kicked off operations the same day.

NTT West, one of the two regional carriers of the Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. group, has cut its number of branches to 16 from 30.

The 49 new NTT West subsidiaries and 51 new arms of NTT East Corp., the other NTT regional carrier, have taken on 100,000 NTT group workers.

The 100 new units cover the following sectors: marketing, engineering, and accounting and general affairs.