The Hindu : International / India & World : Dayanidhi Maran in Pakistan

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jun 29, 2004

International

International - India & World

Dayanidhi Maran in Pakistan

By B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD, JUNE 28. The Union Minister of Communications and Information Technology, Dayanidhi Maran, arrived here tonight to attend the two-day meeting of SAARC Communications Ministers beginning tomorrow.

Mr. Maran told The Hindu that he looked forward to the visit not only to take part in the SAARC meet but also to meet informally some political leaders in the country. ``I presume tomorrow is a big day for all political parties as the National Assembly would be electing the Leader of the House and Prime Minister. Let us see how it goes,'' he said.

Mr. Maran is the first Minister in the Manmohan Singh Government to visit Pakistan. His visit coincides with a successful round of Foreign Secretary level talks in New Delhi. He is scheduled to meet the Pakistan President, Pervez Musharraf, when the SAARC Ministers make a courtesy call tomorrow.

The Chairman, Telecom Commission, Nripendra Misra, will be with the Minister along with other senior officials of the Department of Telecommunications. The Ministers will discuss various issues concerning the region, including the issue of bridging the digital divide in South Asian countries and suggest short and long term action plans.

The development of performance indicators on the telecommunication sector in member countries and the identification of human resource development programmes for strengthening the communication sector in the region will also come up for discussion. The Ministers will also deliberate on evolving a common position on issues of concern to the region in the telecommunication sector at the World Summit for Information Society (WSIS) to be held at Tunis in November 2005.

The conference will take up other issues such as cooperation with international agencies in the field of telecommunications and initiatives for a high-level dialogue between the SAARC and the Asia Pacific Telecommunity (APT) for discussion.

The meeting will conclude with the adoption of a new Plan of Action on Telecommunications for SAARC countries, stressing on complete digitalisation of inter-country links, establishing an intra-regional high bandwidth hub, and promoting R&D activities and exchange of expertise in telecommunication disciplines. The action plan will also ensure universal access, development of rural services and affordable tariffs for telecommunication services.

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