ISLAMABAD, Jan 30: The federal minister for information technology and telecommunications, Awais Ahmad Leghari, has said funds will be made available to Telephone Industries of Pakistan (TIP) to carry out research and development activities.

He stated this during a briefing at TIP Haripur on Thursday.

The minister said TIP should be run as a real private-sector company to meet the day-to-day requirements. He called upon TIP officials to rethink their policies and make them commensurate with the changing telecom environment. He asked the company to extend more facilities to its employees so that they could play a constructive role in the progress of the company.

He praised the products produced by TIP and exhorted the management to maintain its quality. The minister further said the telecommunication sector around the world was going through a process of rapid change. Information Technology (IT), convergence, mobile telephony, Internet and value-added services are the new trends