Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh today assured that the government will formulate forward-looking policies to sustain Telecom sector's growth and also look into the concerns of the telecom industry.

Addressing the 6th edition of India Telecom in New Delhi the Prime Minister stressed the need to promote domestic telecom equipment manufacturing facilities in the wake of strategic and security needs of the country.

Noting that the two National Telecom Policies of 1994 and 1999 were major initiatives to propel growth in the sector, the Prime Minister said the government is working on the National Telecom Policy-2011 with a special emphasis on affordable and quality telecom services in rural and remote areas of the country.

At the same time, he asked the industry to look ahead in giving a new sense of momentum to the sector. He also emphasised on the need for promoting domestic telecom equipment manufacturing and R&D in the sector.

He said the government will make all efforts to see more successes in the future in this important sector of the economy and will work closely with all stake holders to build upon earlier achievements.

Dr. Singh urged the private sector to join hands with the government and said that there is an urgent need to give impetus to domestic research and development and manufacturing in the sector.

Referring to various initiatives taken by the government he said broadband connectivity is a powerful tool for enabling faster growth and promoting inclusion.

Dr. Manmohan Singh said that increase in broadband penetration leads to higher GDP. He said the national optical fiber network infrastructure will help in connecting all village Panchayats.

The Prime Minister said that an amount of 20,000 crore rupees is estimated to be spend by the government initially on infrastructure of the project and a similar amount will be spent by the private sector. Dr. Singh while talking about draft national telecom policy said that it aims to achieve 175 million broadband connections by 2017 and 600 million connections by 2020.

Addressing the function, telecom minister Kapil Sibal said that India has the cheapest telecom tariff and said many more initiatives are being taken to increase tele-density to empower people at all levels. Ministers of State of Telecom and IT Sachin Pilot and Milind Deora also addressed the inaugural function.