ISLAMABAD, Jan 28: Pakistan and South Korea have agreed to enhance bilateral cooperation for forging joint partnerships in the fields of information technology and telecommunication.
"Our government is keen to forge a constructive relationship with Seoul to explore the possibilities of launching joint projects in the fields of IT and telecom," said Minister for Information Technology Awais Ahmed Khan Leghari in a meeting with South Korean Ambassador Jeon Bou-Guan here on Wednesday.
The minister told the diplomat that Korean giant Hyundai Information Systems was working with the State Bank of Pakistan in a multi-million dollars project to automate the latter's core functioning while similar contracts in the e-government area were also being readied by his ministry for execution.
Pakistani companies with relevant background should team up with the Korean firms to participate in such projects, he added. The minister said he would visit South Korea in the near future to develop these ideas in conjunction with the Korean IT industry in the backdrop of a memorandum of understanding signed between the Korean IT association and Pakistan's software houses association during President Pervez Musharraf's visit to Seoul last year.
Mr Leghari said he was keen to meet and interact with major IT firms in the public and private sector to explore possibilities for launching joint partnerships in the production and manufacturing of IT and telecom products.
He said Pakistan was also keen to learn from the experiences of the public and private enterprises in Korea. "Pakistan can also draw on the expertise and human resource possessed by the Korean companies in launching e-government in Pakistan."
The minister invited the Korean IT companies to set up development centres in Pakistan given the huge potential in the areas of investment and return following the deregulation of the telecom sector.
"The deregulation will mark the beginning of quality services at affordable prices in a competitive atmosphere," he said, adding tele-density ratio in Pakistan stood at 2.7 per cent which was likely to jump up to 7-8 per cent with the issuance of about 20 million new connections in the next four to five years.
The Korean envoy appreciated the efforts of the government to expand telecommunication network in the country. He said South Korea with annual IT exports totalling $15 billion had already partnered successfully with the public and private sector companies in Malaysia and China and Korean businessmen were expanding their networks in the two countries.
He said given the huge potential of its market and investment opportunities, Pakistan could be a huge attraction for the Korean investors and businessmen seeking joint partnership.
