ISLAMABAD, March 19: Minister for Information Technology Awais Ahmad Khan Leghari on Saturday proceeded to Bahrain to attend the 3rd IT ministers conference starting on March 21. The two-day conference is the third of the series initiated in May 2002 in Seoul as a forum for exchange of views and ideas on the development of information and communication technologies in Asia with an aim to accelerate global integration for the countries in this region. Mr Leghari, who has been invited to address the conference as a keynote speaker, said the conference would provide Pakistan with an opportunity to showcase its stresses gained recently in the telecom sector following the completion of deregulation process introduced by the government two years ago.

Over 40 countries from the region have confirmed sending ministerial delegations to the summit. The minister said he would also use the occasion to hold separate meetings with the IT ministers from various Arab countries that shared very similar challenges with many Asian economies in the development of their IT infrastructure.