china Mobile to invest $800ml in Pakistan

Keeping in view the business prospects in the Pakistani cellular market, China Mobile Communication Corporation has plan to invest $800 million by the end of this year, which would provide jobs to around 5,000 people.

The company already invested $700 million in this sector. China Mobile Communication Corporation Chairman and CEO Wang Jianzhou expressed these views during a meeting with Prime Minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gillani here on Saturday.

He said the company was launching its brand by the name of ZONG today. He said that China Mobile is the biggest cellular phone company in the world with over 380 million subscribers and this investment in Pakistan was the company’s first foreign investment anywhere in the world.

He said that by the end of this year his company would install 5180 new sites, which would cover 90 percent areas of Pakistan. He apprised the prime minister that the company hopes to expand its activities in the country and build its network.

The company would also bring new equipment to the country, train people and become an active player in the country’s telecom sector. He also expressed interest for investment in the education and environment sectors, which the prime minister appreciated. Prime Minister informed the delegation that China was all weather, time-tested friend and both the counties had strategic and close relationship in every field.

The entry of China Mobile into the Pakistani market would augur well for further enhancement of economic relations between the two countries, he added. The prime minister said that Pakistan’s telecom sector had gone through a rapid growth and this increase in teledensity in the country had created several growth opportunities.

(Pakistan Daily)