December 18, 2003	Thursday	Shawwal 23, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, Dec 17: Greater cooperation between Pakistan and China has been underlined for the growth and promotion of telecom and IT sectors in Pakistan, said an official statement.

“The two countries have already successfully collaborated in various fields, including defence, and this cooperation can be extended to the telecom and IT sector,” said federal minister for information technology Awais Ahmad Khan Leghari during a meeting with Chinese ambassador Zhang Chunxiang on Wednesday.

Mr Leghari also invited Chinese investors and entrepreneurs to invest in the fields of information technology and telecommunications in Pakistan following the deregulation of the telecom sector.

“The government is moving quickly on the process of deregulation in the telecom sector and once it is over, there will be a lot of investment opportunities in this sector,” he told the diplomat.

Mr Leghari also spoke of government’s efforts for the promotion of IT and telecom sectors with particular focus on the expansion of internet and telephone facilities in the far-flung areas.

He said the deregulation of telecom sector had opened up huge opportunities for foreign investment in Pakistan and even conservative estimates by agencies, like the World Banks, had put the investment figures at six to seven billion dollars in the next five years.

The Chinese envoy also admitted the investment opportunities in Pakistan’s telecom market, given the easy availability of rich human resource at very competitive price and the margins of growth in the sector.

He said China attached great importance to the IT and telecom sectors and already the sector had witnessed a tremendous growth over the last one year with the number of mobile and fixed line phone users increasing by 228 per cent in the country.