China Mobile offers to lay fibre optic cable from Karakoram to Gwadar.

[LahoreEstate]

Saturday, March 21, 2009
By Jawwad Rizvi

LAHORE: China Mobile Communication Corporation (CMCC) has offered to lay a fibre optic cable from Karakoram to Gwadar.

The offer was made by a Chinese delegation which met Adviser to the PM on Interior Affairs Rehman Malik with a condition that it be provided conducive investment environment.

Sources privy to the meeting held in Islamabad told The News that the Chinese delegation was led by Co-Chairman CMCC Zhang Chunjiang and comprised other members and Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan Luo Zhaohui.

Sources further revealed the head of the delegation took up the long-standing LDI (long-distance international) licence issue with the adviser.

Chunjiang pointed out that despite getting approval from the prime minister and the cabinet and clear directives from the ministry of information & technology, the PTA has refused to issue LDI licence to China Mobile.

Such actions from the side of Pakistani authority of refusing could limit investment in this sector of the industry, they said. They further revealed that the delegation mentioned that due to non-issuance of LDI licence, Zong has been paying a huge amount for using other network for international roaming.

CMCC Co-Chairman had also mentioned that one month back Federal Minister for Investment, Senator Waqar Ahmed Khan, also gave assurance for issuance of LDI licenses within two weeks but so far no action was made and the issue of getting LDI license remained unsolved.

The meeting has also informed about the China Mobile future plans 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. The delegation had pointed out 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. Similarly, China mobile had paid $106 million in direct taxation and paid another $91.5 million under various heads to the government. The delegation asked the adviser for providing a level playing field to all the stakeholders of the cellular industry.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=168254