July 21, 2003	Monday	Jumadi-ul-Awwal 20, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, July 20: Federal Minister for Information Technology Awais Ahmad Khan Leghari on Sunday described as unfounded the apprehensions and misgivings about the telecom de- regulation policy.

Talking to a group of professionals and stake-holders ahead of his departure to Russia on Sunday, the minister stressed that his ministry had developed an investor-friendly deregulation policy that would be followed by a completely open licensing regime.

The minister said keeping in view the sensitivity of telecom sector, performance bond had been incorporated so that technically and financially capable operators could participate in the telecom sector development.

Awais Leghari further stated that despite the pre-dominant position of the PTCL as the incumbent operator, the policy would ensure a level-playing field available to all operators. He said the role of Deregulation Facilitation Unit in the IT ministry was precisely to ensure that PTCL extended all necessary cooperation to the new entrants as per provisions of the policy.

The minister said PTA as a totally independent regulator would also fully safeguard the interests of the new entrants. Awais Leghari was of the view that the fragmented licensing policy had been drafted after giving careful consideration to the current trends in the international investment scenario and the telecom domain.

He said his ministry recognized that the current investment climate for telecom projects was challenging and as such the telecom policy had been designed to offer liberal opportunity and incentives for LL and LDI operators.

Responding to the criticism as carried by a section of the press, Awais Leghari clarified that the sole reason for restricting the share of the LDI operators in international traffic revenues and imposing roll-out obligations and performance bond was to encourage serious operators with long- term strategic vision.

He said it had also been ensured in the policy that the new investors could enter with long-term programmes instead of “fly- by-night” operators whose sole aim was to disappear after making short-term gains through exploiting the arbitrage between the cost of carrying international calls and international termination rate. The minister said such operators would be discouraged from entering and destabilizing the LDI market.

Awais Leghari proceeded to Russia on Sunday on a six-day visit aimed at enhancing cooperation between the two countries in the fields of information technology and telecommunication.

He will also explore the possibilities of cooperation in the area of human resource development between the two countries.