India has included the US, Israel, Japan, South Korea, Belgium and Sweden in an internal list of six “strategically important” telecom partner countries for realising NTP-2012 goals, leaving out China and Taiwan, which happen to be two of the world’s biggest telecom gear manufacturing zones, executives aware of the matter said. The telecom department has convened a meeting on February 13 with Ficci, CII, Assocham and industry bodies representing the country’s network gearmakers, internet service providers, GSM, CDMA and dual-technology companies to thrash out a comprehensive strategy for broadening telecom ties with the six priority markets in the run-up to communications minister Kapil Sibal’s planned visits to these regions to attract foreign investment. Source

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