May 9, 2003	Friday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 6, 1424

ISLAMABAD, May 8: The National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) will provide trade and funding facility of Rs2.1 billion to Mobilink for upgrading its services and to enhance the capacity of subscribers as well as expanding the network to more cities.

An agreement in this regard was signed by Mobilink President Al Barri and the NBP President Syed Ali Raza here on Thursday at the NBP office.

Of Rs 2.1billion facility, Rs1 billion will be a 5-year term loan and will be utilized by Mobilink to enhance its infrastructure network in Pakistan.

Mr Barri said his company was putting together an expansion plan of $130 million, which will provide us with substantial switching and radio capacity enabling us to offer enhanced, superior cellular services to our customers. “In fact our target is to add enough capacity for one million new subscribers in 2003 alone over and above the current capacity of 1.1 million”, he said.