BEIJING, April 17 (APP): Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said Tuesday that Pakistan's tele-density was growing at a rate of 35 per cent annually adding one and a half million subscribers and offers attractive incentives for foreign telecom companies for more investment.
Addressing a Telecom Roundtable here attended by Chief Executive Officers, and Presidents of leading Chinese companies including the ZTE, Huwaei, Alcatel, Boco Inter Telecom, Kongzhong, Lenovo, Ningho Bird, TCC, Asia Info, Beijing University of Ports and Telecom and China Mobile Pakistan, the Prime Minister said Pakistan can serve as a base for developing both the software and hardware for the telecom industry.
"We are an open economy and welcomes investors, providing them a level playing field for both the local and foreign companies," he added.
He said the Special Incentives Zone inaugurated by Chinese President Hu Jintao during his recent visit toPakistan provides a number of incentives and facilities including rental subsidies, zero tax rates and cheaper labour to expand and diversify business for export to other countries in the region.
Prime Minister Aziz said tele-density in the country was likely to grow unabated due to the rapid economic growth and demographics and said the country has a large percentage of under-25 population that desires newer handsets and value-added services.
Aziz inviting the Chinese software and hardware companies to invest in Pakistan said they can diversify and utilize the services of highly educated and skilled manpower and the large base of telecom engineers. He said these companies can also collaborate with Pakistani companies.
He said the Pakistan Telecom Authority was a good regulator and was ensuring that all mobile companies get fair share in the market. He said there was huge potential in Pakistani telecom market as there was low cost of production. He said there was a need to improve the billing, networking and allied facilities for Paktel and work was underway in this regard.
He said Pakistan has now over 50 million subscribers and 1.5 million were being added monthly as the income of the people were increasing. He said Pakistan was appreciative of the success of Chinese telecom companies and asked them to consider it as a base for these to diversify geographically.
CEO of China Mobile Wang Jiazhou said his company had acquired Paktel for US 460 million dollars and will add another US 400 million dollars to make it more competitive with the existing cellular companies. He said Pakistan was a rapidly growing telecom market and was the main attraction for investment.
He said Chinese mobile market was also growing at a rate of 35 per cent and five million subscribers were being added every month.
Adviser to Prime Minister Sharifuddin Pirzada, Minister for IT Awais Leghari, Minister for Science and Technology Naouraiz Shakoor, Foreign Secretary Riaz Mohammad Khan, Chinese ambassador to Pakistan and Pakistan's ambassador to China Salman Bashir.
