08 January 2005	Saturday	26 Ziqa'ad 1425

ISLAMABAD, Jan 7: Pakistan is ready to assist Sudan in the IT sector by initiating joint ventures and transferring expertise and technical know-how for socio-economic development.

The offer was made to Sudan's ambassador to Pakistan Daffa Alla Elhag Ali Osman by Minister for Information Technology Awais Ahmad Khan Leghari on Friday.

Pakistan is ready to offer training and technical expertise to help implement e-government projects in Sudan through Pakistani companies that had already successfully executed big e- government projects such as the issuance of computerized identity cards to citizens.

Mr Leghari told the Sudanese envoy that Pakistan's IT sector had shown a healthy growth during the last two years. The skilled workforce had helped the local IT industry register about 50 per cent growth in the export of IT-enabled services and products to the outside world.

Government policies in the IT and telecom sector had already brought about remarkable and radical changes in the sector, providing for a conducive and investment-friendly environment for international businesses, he said.

"Our effort is to play the role of a facilitator with minimum government interference which has gone a long way in attracting billions of dollars in investment in the telecom sector," he added.

Awais Leghari said the government was also making serious efforts to privatize the Pakistan Telecommunication Company (PTCL) and major international players from the US, Singapore, Malaysia and the UAE had shown interest in investing in the company.

He said the government was focussing on the promotion of IT industry, particularly implementation of e-government project at the federal and provincial government levels.

"The prime minister himself is keen to oversee progress on this major initiative and has established the e-government commission, headed by him, to give plans and targets to different ministries to ensure a timely implementation of the e-government project," Mr Leghari said.

Daffa Alla Elhag Ali Osman thanked Awais Leghari for the support, saying his country would love to benefit from the successes gained by Pakistan in the IT and telecom sector. He also invited the minister to visit Sudan and meet key people in the IT and telecom industry to explore ways of forging joint ventures.

Sudanese businessmen are keen to enter into mutually- beneficial partnerships with their Pakistani counterparts and the minister's visit to Sudan would prove to be very decisive and fruitful in furthering ties between the two countries, the ambassador said.