In the fast changing telecoms landscape creation of new market segments is the most crucial area of policy focus as new segments broaden the base of the ICT industry and enable delivery of socially relevant innovative services to an expanding user base, said Ms. Anusha Rehman, Minister for State for Telecom and IT Ministry at a panel discussion during ongoing ITU Telecom World Event in Budapest Hungary.
Panel discussed was titled as “Opening up new markets in the converged ICT ecosystem: new users, new services or new segments”.
In a widely publicized panel interview she particularly highlighted that the convergence of telecommunication and IT services has created a global telecommunication and information society infrastructure, connected to information networks across the world.
Citing the core focus of the Government of Pakistan in enabling new markets she mentioned the priority for smart city, online transactions, e-commerce, e-banking, e-Health, e-government and other e-initiatives as drivers for new market segments in Pakistan.
On the sidelines of the telecom summit the Minister met with the Ministers of It from Azerbaijan and Iran being key players in the region in terms of ICTs. She also met with high level delegations from Turkey, ITU, World Bank and Cisco Corporation.
In her meeting with the ITU delegation the minister wowed for an increased and meaningful participation in the global telecommunications development activities and reaffirmed Pakistan’s interest to host the international Regulatory Round-table in the coming year.
She also urged the top management of global technology leaders and corporations like Cisco to take advantage of the immense market opportunity and talent available in Pakistan and to boost their presence in the country.
The Minister besides various other engagements, also spoke at the Leadership Summit where the need for integrating regional markets was stressed and the importance of such market building for regional integration in general was highlighted.
She emphasized that it is imperative for the governments to define a roadmap towards a converged and regionally integrated ICT ecosystem, with requisite regulatory institutions and measures in place.
