China Mobile Communications Corporation (China Mobile) is seeking opportunities for overseas expansion, Wang Jianzhou, president of the country's largest mobile network operator, said on Saturday attending the 10th China Development Forum.

China Mobile has two advantages in international competition, according to Wang. "One is the large company scale, which could help lower costs in purchase and management. The other is its experiences in the emerging market."

In 2007, the company acquired Paktel Ltd., a Pakistani telecommunications operator, for US$460 million. Both network building and sales have been "much improved" since China Mobile took over the company now renamed as CMPak, said Wang without providing further details.

Faced with the impact of the global financial crisis on the mobile telecommunications industry, China Mobile picked the country's rural market as another growth area. Mobile phone users covered fewer than 30 percent of the more than 700 million rural population.

The company's business volume stood at 412.3 billion yuan (US$60.37 billion) in 2008, up 15.5 percent from a year earlier. However, it was the slowest growth rate in the past five years.

(Xinhua News Agency March 21, 2009)