ISLAMABAD, June 9: Federal Minister for Information Technology Awais Ahmad Khan Leghari on Wednesday called for greater cooperation and partnership between mobile phone operators in Pakistan and Bangladesh to learn from each others' experiences and translate them into cogent benefits for the subscribers.

"We have already liberalized the telecom sector with two more operators about to start their operations following grant of licences to them through a very successful bidding process," he said in a meeting with Mehboob Chowdhury, chairman of the South Asian GSM Operators Forum and a director of Grameenphone, the leading mobile phone provider in Bangladesh.

Mehboob Chaudhry was also accompanied by Mahboob Hossain and Shibly Zaman, officials at Grameen phone. Awais Leghari also highlighted the government's efforts to promote IT and telecom sectors, with particular focus on launching of e-government programme in the public sector.

He said the government was actively encouraging private-public partnerships. He said recent achievements secured in the telecom sector in the country had gone a long way in improving the country's image as a safe and investment-friendly place.

He said the ministry of information technology was also working hard to turn IT into a vibrant sector by providing innovative support and incentives to international IT players to contribute to the growth of the information technology in Pakistan.

Mr Leghari said the ministry was ready to provide help or resources to companies and individuals seeking to use IT as an enabler to improve efficiency in public services.