China Mobile Communications Corporation (China Mobile) will invest another 500 million U.S. dollars in Pakistan during the year 2009, the company's subsidiary in Pakistan disclosed on Friday.
The money will be earmarked for building new network capacity and other infrastructure, the CM Pak Ltd. (CM Pak), China Mobile's wholly-owned subsidiary in Pakistan said in a statement.
The Federal Minister for Investment, Senator Waqar Ahmed, Ambassador at large Khalil Ahmed, Advisor to the Prime Minister on Water Resources Majidullah Kamal and Chinese Ambassador Luo Zhaohui visited the head office of CM Pak and were briefed about the performance of the company.
Qian Li, Chief Executive Officer of CM Pak, known in Pakistan as ZONG, introduced the operations of the company and also informed the visitors of the failure of the company to get the ( Long Distance International) LDI license despite of the approval from the Prime Minister and the cabinet.
Zafar Usmani, Chief Operating officer of the company, informed that the company had so far invested 1.66 billion U.S. dollars in Pakistan and offered more than 41,700 jobs in the country.
Waqar Ahmed Khan praised the role of China Mobile and appreciated the company's plan to continue to invest in the country. He hoped the problem of the company could be resolved and more Chinese companies could come to the country for investment.
Luo Zhaohui appreciated the Pakistani government's investor- friendly policies. He said the Chinese government had always been encouraging investors to come to Pakistan and the bilateral cooperation was expected to be enhanced as a result of the combined efforts.
ZONG is China Mobile's first overseas venture which came into being in 2007.
(Xinhua News Agency February 13, 2009)