6, April 2005	Wednesday	26 Safar 1426

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ISLAMABAD, April 5: Information Technology Minister Awais Ahmad Khan Leghari has urged Chinese businessmen to promote transfer of technology and add value to their business activity in the telecom sector in Pakistan. He was talking to a team of Chinese traders and businessmen led by ZTE Corporation Chairman Hou Weighu here on Tuesday. “We have received a huge amount of Chinese investment in the telecom and IT sector and it is time they focused more on the human resource development not only required for the country but capable of exporting abroad,” he added.

He appreciated the signing of a protocol between ZTE and Pakistan Software Export Board, saying the move indicated “an expansion of our relationship from telecom to the IT sector as well”.

The minister told the Chinese delegation that Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz himself was overseeing the efforts for promotion of software development, research and the much-needed human resource development.

“The government is providing maximum facilities and incentives to foreign companies for setting up Research and Development (R&D) centres and the companies such as ZTE have responded very well by setting up their R&D and software development centres in the country,” he added.

Mr Leghari told the minister that Pakistan attached a great importance to its relationship with China and hoped the upcoming visit to Pakistan by the Chinese prime minister Wen Jiabao would prove to be a milestone in the bilateral relations between the two countries.

Mr Hou Weighu told the minister that his company had successfully partnered with the PTCL for the promotion of telecommunication sector and already the number of projects the company had launched in Pakistan had gone beyond 20, marking a stage from where the company would use Pakistan as a global resource centre for the worldwide operations of the company.

He said the company was already in the process of setting up R&D and software development centres in Pakistan and a large share of the company’s sales that touched $ 3 billion last year, had been contributed by the ZTE’s operations in Pakistan.

He said his company would soon start construction of a huge R&D centre on a piece of land the company had been provided by the government. Our Reporter adds:

Federal Minister for Railways Mian Shamim Hider has said the government wants to maintain friendly relations with the Peoples Republic of China by all means.

During a meeting with a delegation of Chinese corporation, Dong Fong, the minister said all-out attempts were being made to resolve the sensitive issues of technical defects in the locomotive from Chinese firm.

He said the experts of the subject firm after thorough examining the defects would repair all such stabled locomotives, which plays a key role in the system of railways.

The head of the delegation, Mr Zeezefu, assured the minister to make all-out attempts to meet the shortcomings in the locomotives supplied by the firm. He said his firm was keen to extend the warranty periods for those locomotives.

He further said his firm had now manufactured 7000 such locomotive and no such defect had ever been crept up in any of the locomotive even by those countries who had purchased these engines.