Economic Co-ordination Committee of the Cabinet (ECC) being held today (Wednesday) is likely to approve sovereign guarantee in respect of Syndicated Terms Finance Facility of Rs 7.487 billion for the power sector. Sources said that the ECC meeting to be presided over by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar is also expected to take up the issue of pending payments to Pakistan Agricultural Storage & Services Corporation Limited (PASSCO) by Afghanistan as well extension in export of wheat and wheat flour and textile policy 2015 is expected. The meeting is expected to consider telecom policy 2015.

The implementation of the telecom policy is expected to have far reaching impact on the economy as the government is eying to enhance telecom sector contribution to the GDP as well as exports of the telecom sector. The Ministry of IT estimates telecom services contribution up to 1.74 percent in the overall GDP of the country by 2025. The efforts would be made to increase the country's exports to $4 billion by 2020.

Sources said that the policy is expected to bring about competition by providing opportunity to the new market player and introduction of product for wholesale and retail services. Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunications (MoIT) has finalised the Telecommunications Policy and forwarded it to ECC for approval. The new policy was pending since 2009 after the expiry of previous one.

The important aspect of the policy is the convergence of broadband, cellular and other policies into one whole. All important areas of telecoms, infrastructure, licensing, services are said to have been taken care of in the policy. Some proposal may also be tabled, as usual, during the meeting.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2015