ISLAMABAD ( BMZ REPORT )
Ministry of Information Technology has formally started consultative process on IT Policy frame-work in order to get inputs from all stakeholders. In this regard consultative meeting was held between Ministry and Academia herein Islamabad today. The meeting was chaired the MOS IT Ms. Anusha Rahman. Federal Secretary IT, Mr. Azmat Ali Ranjha, Member (Telecom) Mudassar Hussain, Member (IT/HR) Mr. Tahir Mushtaq and Member (Legal) Ms. Ameena Sohail were present in the meeting. The Academia side was represented by the senior faculty of NUST, COMSATS, Air University, IIU, HEC, QAU, Agriculture University, FAST, ZABIST and other IT Heads of renowned Educational Institutions from public and private sector.
Minister said that a comprehensive telecom policy has already been finalized with consultation of all stakeholders and is with ECC for approval and IT Policy Frame-work has been floated for stakeholder consultations. She said that Academicians are repositories of knowledge and their input will not only help us in preparation of a comprehensive policy frame-work but also help in improving linkages between Academia and Industry.
While discussing salient features of the IT Policy Frame-work, she said that our IT Policy draft includes human resource development, promotion of young entrepreneurs, infrastructure development, measures to enhance the volume of software export and a legal & regulatory frame-work to achieve that.
Ms. Anusha Rahman said that it is the dire need of the time to revisit our IT Curriculum being taught in our Academic institutions currently and should redesign it by keeping in view the current market demands to enhance the volume of employability of young graduates. She said that for practical training of the young entrepreneurs, we have already announced “Tech-City Project” and potential venture capitalist would be partnering in this flag-ship programme.
The Minister further stated that our new IT Policy draft will have a special focus on provision of basic e-services i.e. e-health, e-education, and e-agriculture viz-a-viz women empowerment through ICT by teaching young girls, coding, cloud computing and other technological skills. She said that it’s a just a beginning of the discussion, we will surely have a series of consultations with all stakeholders and their valuable inputs will be embedded in final policy draft.