Zong reveals its Pakistani difficulties

Zong, one of the leading telecom providers in Pakistan and a subsidiary of China Mobile Pakistan (CMPak), have revealed its difficulty in the Pakistani market.

“We actually have suffered great difficulties since the acquisition of Paktel in 2007," said Wang Hua, the fifth chief executive officer of CMPak, quoted China.org.cn. "Faced with a fully competitive and open market in Pakistan, we cannot enjoy any special policy or treatment. Hence, the operating costs here are quite far beyond those at home."

The CEO said that the company’s operations were further hindered due to high taxation in pakistan,. The Wang revealed that CMPak didn't make any profit until 2016, and continued in 2017.

Presently, CMPak has more than 31 million customers in Pakistan, accounting for about 21 per cent of the market. The number of its 4G subscribers has reached 8 million, ranking first in the industry.

Talking about the ongoing the multi-billion dollars China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project, which itself is a part of a much larger China’s Belt and Road project, Wand said that the role of his company is to ‘provide support’ to such projects.

"Strictly speaking, CMPak is not a Belt and Road project; however, one of our important missions is to provide support for such projects and serve interested Chinese enterprises and their employees," Wang said.

In earlier talks to China Daily¸ Wang informed that the company intends to increase investment in 4G in the coming years, and he expects the company to build 5,000 base stations in the next three years.