Nepal's sole billionaire signed a HK$778 million contract with Huawei to develop the high-tech infrastructure
Binod Chaudhary, Nepal's only billionaire and chairman of Chaudhary Group (CG), is planning to bring 4G to his country's masses.
The financial services company is entering the telecommunications market after recently securing a HK$778 million contract with Huawei Technologies to create a 4G network that could be upgraded to 5G in the future, reports Reuters.
Chaudhary’s family-owned company first made a fortune selling noodles across Asia, and has since gone on to own a bank and dozens of luxury resorts. According to Forbes magazine, Chaudhary is worth US$1.7 billion.
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While 4G, which is up to 10 times faster than 3G, was introduced to Nepal in 2017,it was only available in larger cities like Kathmandu and Pokhara. For the past year, CG has been running limited cellular services in rural areas, and Min Prasad Aryal, a spokesman for Nepal’s telecom regulator, told Reuters that CG has applied for a license to expand the new 4G network to more cities, giving Nepalis quicker access to online service.
“Huawei has been working with the state-owned telecom company, and now they will be working with us,” Chaudhary told Reuters.
Currently, state-run Nepal Telecom holds 51 percent of the telecommunications market, but Chaudhary plans to grab a sizeable portion of that audience.
“We are confident to achieve one third market share in three-to-four years time as we will have an advantage to bring in the latest technology,” Chaudhary said.
But when it comes to expanding his company, Chaudhary is not just looking to make a profit.
“I can easily continue to make the business grow, but there are thousands of family groups like ours,” he told Tatler Asia in May. “To have the opportunity to transform my country and to change the fate of millions of people… that’s something incomparable.”
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