ISLAMABAD (MEDIA)
Board of Investment (BoI) would organise international investors conference for establishment of country s’ first ever laptop assembling and manufacturing plant in the country.
It was agreed during a meeting between Zubair Umar Chairman BoI and Dr Javaid Laghari Chairperson Higher Education Commission (HEC).
The plant would also be used for manufacturing of other telecom items including mobiles.
During the meeting, it was also agreed representatives of provincial governments along would also be invited to this conference. The chairman HEC apprised him about various HEC programmes and initiatives and about the strategy for implementation of Prime Minister’s Scheme for Provision of Laptop.
He informed leading information technology companies have established laptop assembling plants in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Rwanda and Kenya etc. The chairman BoI appreciated the contribution of HEC for socio-economic development of country and assured his cooperation for effective implementation of laptop scheme.
An important meeting was also held to review and finalisation of concept, design implementation of Prime Minister’s Scheme for Provision of Laptop.
This third consecutive meeting was presided over Dr Laghari and was attended by senior officials of federal ministries, HEC and universities while Farhan Aziz Khawaja secretary higher education Punjab participated along with senior officials of Punjab government through video conferencing.
The meeting reviewed proposed eligibility criteria, implementation strategy, funding and exploring potential investment opportunities through public private partnership for procurement and establishment of country s’ first ever laptop assembling plant.
The participants of the meeting supported the idea of establishment laptop assembling plant in Pakistan.
They were of the view this step would be greatly helpful in strengthening indigenous capacity in laptop manufacturing and assembling and will create job opportunities for skilled youth and 50 percent of the required labour would be provided by the Prime Minister’s Skill Development Training Programme.
The meeting decided to hold an international conference of potential bidders for procurement of laptop and to form a steering committee comprising all the stakeholders for effective implementation of the laptop scheme.
A Project Implementation Unit will also be established at HEC to initiate speedy implementation of the scheme without any delay.
Dr Laghari appreciated the initiative by the federal government and assured HEC would implement Prime Minister’s Scheme for Provision of Laptop in a well-defined, merit-basedand transparent manner to promote outreach of youth to information and communication technology.
Director General Information Technology HEC Anwar Amjad gave a detailed presentation elaborating the design and mechanism of implementing the laptop scheme. appInt’l investors’ conference soon for laptop assembling plant