China Mobile is to invest 400 million U.S. dollars to extend its
network in Pakistan, said the company's CEO Wang Jianzhou?on
Saturday.
Wang said the company will step up improving sales channels and
building new brands in Pakistan next year, adding that a wireless
data transmission system will be built in the country.
Pakistan boasts a population of 160 million with young people
taking a great proportion and its telecommunication market is one
of the fastest growing markets in the world.
China Mobile announced in January it had reached an agreement
with Millicom International Cellular to buy the Luxembourg-based
company's 88.86 percent share of Paktel Limited, Pakistan's fifth
largest mobile phone operator.
The deal valued the Pakistani company at 460 million U.S.
dollars.
That was the first time that China Mobile had acquired a foreign
telecommunication company of "strategic significance".
Last year, the Chinese telecommunication giant acquired all
shares of Hong Kong's fourth largest mobile operator, China
Resources Peoples Telephone Co. Ltd. and a 19.9-percent stake in
Phoenix TV.
Millicom is a global telecommunication investor, providing
cellular telephone services to 12.8 million people in 17 emerging
markets in Asia, Latin America and Africa.
"We hope to accumulate some experience in developing overseas
market," said the CEO at the ongoing Boao Forum for Asia.
(Xinhua News Agency April 22, 2007)