APT is in talks with countries in the region to work out agreements for roaming, said APT executive director Jong-soon Lee. Businesses in South Asia will receive a big boost with establishment of roaming facility, he added.

As most countries of the sub-region have GSM as their standard, roaming is technically feasible, Lee said. "Such an agreement can be the driving force in increasing intra and inter-trade facilitation," he added.

Lee was speaking on the occasion of APT's working group meet for South Asia in the Capital on Monday.

Delivering the inaugural address at the meet, Telecom Commission chairman Anil Kumar stressed that roaming in the region was high on India's priority.Kumar sais that digitisation of communication links between India, Nepal and Bhutan had been completed and talks were on for additional cross-border links. "We are also initiating dialogue with Bangladesh and Pakistan in this direction," he said.

Kumar added that the new telecom policy focuses on creating an environment attractive for investment in basic services, cellular mobile services and value-added services.

Commenting on trends in the telecom industry, Lee said that though basic telephony would be the prime business of all operators, the provision of value-added services would draw attention of information industry.However, to make the most of this, the quality of the networks had to be enhanced, he added.

As many as 30 countries, including India, are members of APT. Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Iran, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka comprise the South Asia group of Asia Pacific telecommunity.

The two-day Asia Pacific Telecommunity's Teleworks meeting is focusing on issues facing the industry such as financing, regulation, resource mobilisation strategies and new telecom services. The idea of the meet was to develop a frame work of action in the changing regulatory environment, said APT officials.

Matters related with regulatory aspects, business and economy, including services such as internet, electronics and international mobile telephone are being covered.