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Pakistan and China enjoy excellent friendly relations, which need to further develop in the economic areas.
Dr. Abdul Hafeez Shaikh Federal Minister for Privatisation & Investment stated during a meeting with
the visiting delegation of China Mobile Communication Corporation (CMCC) led by
VP Mr. Li Yue here today.
The Minister while appreciating serious interest from Chinese entrepreneurs in the privatisation of Pakistan
Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) hoped that other Chinese business groups would also come
forward towards new ventures and to take active part in Pakistan's Privatisation Program.
We have already privatised major portion of our banking and manufacturing sector while their existed
tremendous scope in the finance, infrastructure, power and telecom sectors, he said.
Dr. Hafeez Shaikh further stated that the interest shown by Norway, UAE, Egypt, China and other countries in the
mobile and Telecom sectors was encouraging to support our endeavor to privatise PTCL, which received
remarkable number of 18 EOIs and among those eight prospective and potential bidders have already been
pre-qualified, which were from various regions of the world. The eight pre-qualified parties for PTCL include
1. Sing Tel, Singapore, 2. Emirates Telecommunication Corporation (ETISALAT), 3. Telecom
Malaysia, 4. Mobile Telecommunication Company, Kuwait, 5. Saudi Oger Limited, Saudi Arabia, 6. Turkcell, 7. China Mobile
Communication Corporation, 8. Saudi Telecom Company. In addition, one party namely
Consortium of Almal & Detecon is pre-qualified conditionally.
The leader of the delegation Mr. Li Yue lauded the fast pace of privatisation progress made by Pakistan under
the leadership of Dr. Abdul Hafeez Shaikh and assured that Chinese entrepreneurs were fully confident of
the quality and would continue their strong support to the privatisation program of Pakistan. PTCL privatisation
would further develop the business and economic activity in Pakistan, being a valuable chance for serious
participants, he observed. He also made a detailed presentation regarding the CMCC operations and
services. Mr. M. Tahsin Khan Iqbal Secretary PC and Mr. Tallat Mian, EDG BOI were also present during the
meeting.