Malaysian telecom company investing $100m in Pakistan 

ISLAMABAD—One of Malaysia’s leading telecom companies is investing 100 million dollars in Pakistan for connecting 107 cities with 4,100 kilometers of fibre optic cable.
Speaking here at a news conference, chief executive officer of Telekom Malaysia (TM) Yusof Annuar Yaacob, said “Project Ittehad” will boost country’s overall communications infrastructure.
One of its subsidiary companies, Multinet is providing broadband internet access via wired and wireless media in 12 cities in Pakistan.
The CEO of Multinet, Adnan Azdar said 40 percent of the total investment by the TM has already been made.
Multinet is the first private sector operator in developing optic fibre infrastructure in Pakistan.
Yaacob said the company, which has 23 million mobile subscribers all over Asia, is looking seriously at making inroads into Pakistan’s lucrative mobile market.
TM, headquartered in Kuala Lumpur, has a string of other subsidiaries in Asia where it has substantial equity control in several mobile operators, Yaacob said at the press conference held on the sidelines of the World Islamic Economic Forum. “We are the emerging leader for Asian communication and has all the right ingredients for international success,” he added.
He said the Multinet will be able to fulfill the needs of Pakistan’s high growth telecommunication sector, offering services to mobile operators, long distance international operators and internet service providers.
As one of the largest listed companies in Malaysia, TM has a market capitalization of $ 8.38 billion and interests in Indonesia, Singapore, Cambodia, Thailand, Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka and Iran.
With a combined population of nearly two billion across nine Asian markets, where it has invested over $1.3 billion, Yaacob was confident that the company will capture further telecommunication market share.
“We are focusing on quick and efficient execution of specific strategies and we hope to capture more market share,” he added.—Online