The US is pressing to expand its bilateral agreement with Japan on procurement by Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp to include services such as software systems design as well as hardware, a Japanese Ministry of Post & Telecommunications official said: the present agreement, due to expire at year-end, stipulates that NTT must not discriminate between domestic and foreign suppliers in hardware equipment such as cables and exchanges and the US would like Japan to promote transparency in bidding procedures, establish clear criteria for bid assessments, and set up systems to handle complaints, the official said, adding that the two sides were not in severe conflict on the issue, Reuter reports from Tokyo.
