ISLAMABAD, Oct 5: Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has said Pakistan is geared to become regional hub of information technology and telecom business in view of availability of highly-skilled human capital, reduced cost of doing business and world-class infrastructure.

Talking to Telenor President and CEO Fredrik Baksaas who called on him here on Thursday, the prime minister said that deregulation and privatisation policy and opening up of telecommunication sector had stimulated phenomenal growth, attracted foreign investments and telecom sector today was the fastest growing sector of the economy.

Mr Aziz said mobile sector had shown growth of over 100 per cent in last two years. This, coupled with the incentives provided to the information and communication technologies sector, had created an enormous range of opportunities for all segments of the industry.

He said the combined teledensity during last three years had increased from 4.5 per cent to more than 27 per cent and the number of subscribers of fixed and mobile telephony had increased from eight million in 2003 to 42.7 million in 2006. Mobile subscribers alone were in excess of 36 million, he said.

The premier said the use of cellular phones among the low-income subscribers was growing. In rural areas the government was providing the facility of phones through the system of wireless local loop.

Mr Fredrik Baksaas apprised the prime minister of his company’s long-term plan to expand their business in Pakistan.