Saturday, February 14, 2009
By Jawwad Rizvi
LAHORE: The Zong management urged Federal Minister for Investment Senator Waqar Ahmed Khan to resolve the long-delayed matter by PTA for issuance of LDI licence to China Mobile Pakistan. It pointed out that despite getting approval from the prime minister and the cabinet and clear directives of the Ministry of Information & Technology, the PTA has refused to issue LDI licence to China Mobile. This refusal could limit investment in this sector of the industry. The federal minister for investment has visited ZONG’s Head Office with Ambassador of China Luo Zhaohui as part of the efforts by China to apprise the government of the level of Chinese investment in the country. The sources revealed that on the occasion, the ambassador urged the government to intervene in this regard in order to provide level playing field to all the stakeholders in the cellular industry keeping in view the long-term friendship and close ties between both the countries. He pointed out that President Asif Ali Zardari is due to visit China during the last week of February during which he is expected to meet Chinese investors especially from the power and telecommunications sector and explore new areas of cooperation. President Zardari had earlier visited China during October 2008 during which a number of Chinese investors had pledged investments in Pakistan. He said the ZONG is China Mobile’s first venture outside of China and has attracted attention not only in the global cellular arena, but also international finance experts and investment houses. The sources said during visit the minister appreciated the plans of the company to invest another $500 million in the country’s economy during 2009 in the areas of building new network capacity of more than 20 million customer base and other infrastructure. Similarly, Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Zong Zafar Usmani in his briefing informed the minister that the company had so far invested $1.66 billion in Pakistan and has generated more than 1,700 direct and over 40,000 indirect jobs in the country.
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