ISLAMABAD, Feb 19: Minister for Information Technology Awais Ahmad Khan Leghari has said the government is fine tuning the regulations and procedures to put in place the mobile phone banking in the country in a couple of months.

The use of a mobile phone to carryout payment and banking transactions (m-banking) will mainly facilitate the individuals to transfer their money from one place to another in a shortest possible time. The system is in place in many developing countries to authorise the mobile phone company to act like a banking service provider as well.

The minister disclosed this while speaking at 7th NCR and Teradata National Information Technology (IT) Excellence Awards ceremony. The minister gave away awards to the best of the best in the IT industry at the ceremony held in Convention Centre the other day.

The minister said that the State Bank of Pakistan and cellular companies had already held couple of meetings on the issue to develop proper sector regulation, effective institutional and commissioning arrangements.

He said that the ministry had also held meetings with the SBP on the issue. The minister hoped that it would bring further revolution in the IT sector in Pakistan.

Mr Leghari said the government had provided ideal business climate and investment opportunities to foreign investors to participate in the growth of IT and telecom sector in Pakistan.

He said a tremendous response by foreign investors to the policies introduced by the government in the telecom sector reflected on the level of confidence they had in Pakistan as a potential market growing at a fast pace.

“It is a matter of pride for us that the policies we formed at our ministry for the promotion of IT and telecom sector have started bearing fruits in a very short span of time,” he added.

He said the government was keen to promote IT and has taken various concrete steps like formulation of IT policy, waiver of taxes on software houses, scholarships in IT education and training, and cheaper bandwidth rates.