ISLAMABAD (BMZ REPORT )
Minister of State for Information Technology Ms. Anusha Rehman chaired a meeting/interactive session with the CEOs of more than 40 leading technology companies. Federal Secretary for IT, Mr. Akhlaq Ahmad Tarar, Member IT, Mr. Amir Malik and senior officials of MoIT were also present on the occasion. The Minister said the present government of Pakistan wants to develop technology sector and special heed is being paid to make it vibrant and beneficially for the country and its people. Government is going to establish a state of the art of ICT Park in Islamabad with World Bank funding to promote Academia and IT Industry collaboration and to mitigate their gaps, provide cloud based ICT infrastructure, shared services to create a ‘springtime’ environment and culture conducive to dynamic innovations.
The Minister of State for IT elaborated that a comprehensive technology policy review is underway being formulated and the input of the stakeholders will be taken into consideration while framing of technology policy. We welcome all the volunteer IT companies to come forward with their viable proposals and participate in the ongoing e-government projects including E-Filing System, E-Police, E-Agriculture and E-Health. The government will ensure maximum facilitation and cooperation with such enterprises. The Minister further said that Pakistan Software Export Board (PSEB) is being reviewed. So that maximum benefit should be achieved out of its projects. The government advised PSEB to re-initiate a program to assist Pakistani IT companies in acquring certifications.PSEB is also going to impart specialized training to IT professionals/graduates. The specialized course will include programing in I FONE and ride gaming an animation.
National ICT internship program has brought encouraging feedback as over 400 graduate are going to get on job training in order to expand the pool of trained IT resources in Pakistan. We all have to give the priority to the national interest, upon our personal ones, so that we could ensure progress and prosperity for the country and the nation in the long run, Minister added.
The CEOs of the IT Companies hailed the efforts of the Ministry to involve and engage them in the dialogue process on the ICT matters in order to enhance the quantum of software exports and to spur the growth of country economy. They ensured their at most cooperation with MoIT on such endeavors and projects of National interest.