Team up to benefit from technology convergence, Awais tells ITU moot
Staff Report

ISLAMABAD—Pakistan Wednesday called for concerted global efforts by governments for adopting harmonious policies and strategies to confront challenges thrown up by a convergence of voice, video and data services in the telecom sector.
The convergence of technology in the telecom sector has thrown up immense opportunities which can be realised only through transparent, non-discriminatory policies and a regulatory regime that promotes innovation and competition between service between service providers to facilitate the operators and end-users.
This was stated by Minister for Information Technology Awais Ahmad Khan Leghari who was the first among delegates of four countries picked up by International Telecommunication Union (ITU) to deliver its policy statement representing ideals and goals of the union, on the opening day of the 18-day plenipotentiary conference currently under way at the beautiful Beldibi resort in the Turkish city of Antalya, according to a fax message received here Wednesday.
Awais Leghari said a changing global ICT environment required the ITU to strengthen and better equip itself to meet challenging objectives and define strategic direction for the future with a focus on helping developing countries meet new policy and regulatory requirements. He said Pakistan had always striven to strengthen ITU as an effective body to address challenges of the future. “It is encouraging to see the ITU progressing in many important areas but concerted efforts from all member states are required to revisit the goals and objectives set out for the next four years to reform the union and adopt strategies for bridging digital divide and resolving key issues,” he said. He stressed the development of telecommunications on regional and global basis was critical to an overall improvement of economic, social, political, and cultural values. “Telecommunication promotes the sharing and exchange of such values across different cultures, and in doing so, fosters healthier inter-cultural relationships and stronger links between people across the globe,” he said.
Awais reminded the delegates that the economic process of globalization, liberalization and privatization along with the convergence of systems technologies had combined to influence the humanity in a big way. “In pursuit of our broader objectives, we must harmonize our efforts to unleash the creativity of our intellectual power for achieving sustainable socio-economic development through efficient and effective deployment of modern telecommunications,” he said.
He noted that while the developing countries were hectically engaged in the process of improving telecommunication services and providing broadband services to their citizens, it was imperative for the ITU to assist member states in finding ways and means to deployment of cost-effective broadband networks.