BEIRUT, Jan. 15 (Xinhua) -- Lebanon's Prime Minister Saad Hariri on Monday called for privatization of information and technology sectors.

The government must "take its hands off this sector and let the private sector take over," Hariri said during a Q&A session with businessmen and women held at the Beirut Chamber of Commerce.

The prime minister noted that "no one in the world still has this sector centralized."

"As a government, we are working to develop information and technology industries, which are ignored in Lebanon," Hariri said.

Hariri said that, during the presidential vacuum Lebanon experienced in recent years, there had been enough fiber optic cabling installed in the country to serve Lebanon, Syria and Iraq together, but poor administration had hampered efforts to capitalize on the existing infrastructure.