The recent remarkable developments in telecom sector in Pakistan attracted participants at the ITU Asia 2004 exhibition and conference inaugurated here on Tuesday.
Organised every two years by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), a specialised agency of the United Nations, twenty six countries of the Asia Pacific region are participating in the event, with ministerial level delegations.
Recognising Pakistan for its innovative and highly successful policies aimed at increasing tele-density and reducing costs, ITU has invited Awais Ahmed Khan Leghari, Federal Minister for Information Technology, to be a keynote speaker at the plenary session of the conference.
Only six ministers were given this significant honour, with Leghari being the only politician in this group, the others being technocrats from their respective countries.
Awais Leghari was singled out by ITU for making a keynote address at the event, and was asked to speak on his success in transforming Pakistan's mordant telecom sector into the most vibrant and rapidly growing field of economic activity that it is today.
He said, "We have to acknowledge that Asian economies are at varying stages of development, and that a one size fits all approach to developing telecom strategies should not be followed.
Talking about the opportunities that existed in Pakistan for foreign direct investment, the minister said in spite of the fact that PTCL remains the most profitable state owned company, we are committed to follow through on our promise to privatise the company.
Responding to a question, the minister said reducing the digital divide was on the top of his agenda for the next few years.
Referring to the offer made by the Korean President earlier, he said "Pakistan is in the process of rolling out a broadband policy, that will result in fast and affordable Internet access.
Technologies that can deliver lower cost of ownership and can be used in our rural and far-flung areas will be on the top of our priority list, he said.
More than two hundred telecom products and services companies have put up their stalls at the exhibition, with the Pakistani telecom sector present in full force.
Under the Pakistan pavilion flag, nearly all the private as well as the public sector telecom companies in Pakistan have pooled their resources together to present a unified face to the global telecom market.
"This is the first time ever that the private sector telecom companies have joined hands with the government to take part at an international exhibition, said the Minister, whilst meeting the nearly 40 delegates from the Pakistani telecom industry who are also participating actively in ITU 2004.
Pakistani pavilion presents the successes that have been achieved in the past couple of years and was attracting the attention of the serious players in the global telecom industry.
Comments
Comments are closed.