Huawei to invest $170 million in Pakistan this year

Chinese tech giant Huawei Group has unveiled an $170 million investment plan to set up its regional headquarters and upgrade technical support centre in Pakistan, a private media outlet reported.

Huawei Group Vice President Mark Xueman said on Wednesday that his company would invest around $100 million in Pakistan this year.

“Huawei will also set up a regional headquarters in Islamabad at a cost of $55 million that will create job opportunities for young engineers in Pakistan,” he said while talking to Planning, Development and Reforms Minister Makhdoom Khusro Bakhtiar.

Huawei’s official further informed the minister that the company would also invest $15 million more in its technical support centre and it will also hire more workforce for the centre, taking the number of its staff to 800 from 600 this year.

“Huawei is eager to initiate more projects in Pakistan on grant funding from the Chinese government,” Xueman said; responding to which the minister assured him of all cooperation in future joint ventures.

Pakistan is a fast-growing telecom market with subscribers of mobile phones having crossed the 160 million mark compared with the country’s population of 210 million. Of total subscribers, 68 million use 3G/4G. There are 70 million broadband subscribers.

The country imports millions of dollars of mobile phones to meet the local requirements with manufacturing and assembling of handheld devices not present in the country.

According to the government, Huawei has a 25 per cent share in the country’s mobile industry and is also the top tax paying Chinese company in the country.