Friday, December 9 2005 11:05 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Washington: India and the US have held the first ever meeting of a bilateral working group on information and communication technologies and discussed approaches that could be taken to create an investment and regulatory environment in the fast-growing sector.

"The Working Group discussed developments in the information and telecommunications sectors in both countries," the State Department said in a statement after the two-day meeting which ended here yesterday (Dec 8,2005).

"It focused on discussion of approaches Governments can take to create an investment and regulatory environment that can maximize the development of the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) sector," it said.

The meeting was co-chaired by David Goss, State Department's US Coordinator for International Communications and Information Policy and M Madhavan Nambiar, Additional Secretary of the Department of Information Technology.

The Working Group reviewed the recent World Summit on Information Society and discussed issues of mutual importance in multilateral organizations such as the International Telecommunication Union.

It also identified the need for more structured collaboration with the private sector, through the creation of public-private sector groups on telecommunications and information technology.

"Recognizing the impact that the ICT sector has on the future of the US-India bilateral economic partnership, this initiative was launched in July during the visit of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as part of the US-India Economic Dialogue," the release said about the Working Group.

The US participants were from the Department of State, the Department of Commerce, the Office of the US Trade Representative, Federal Communications Commission, Federal Trade Commission, and National Science Foundation.

Indian delegation included representatives from Departments of Information Technology and Telecommunications of the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, along with officials from the Embassy of India in Washington.