IT
policy brings in $150m investment: Atta-ur-Rahman
ISLAMABAD: Minister for
Science and Technology Prof Atta-ur-Rahman said government's
investor-friendly Information Technology policy brought in an investment
of $150 million last year. Addressing a seminar organised by Cisco
Systems here on Tuesday, the minister said the investment volume in IT
was expected to touch $400 million mark in the next fiscal.
"These figures are
not based on Memoranda of Understanding but reflect the real money that
has been invested in Pakistan," he added. The minister urged Cisco
to set up 50 training academies all over Pakistan during the next nine
to 10 months. At present Cisco has two regional academies in the
country.
He said government's
programmes for IT training, development of human resources,
infrastructure development and an enabling environment have begun to
bear fruits. "The IT sector has become one of the most dynamic
sectors of investment in Pakistan," he said and added that a number
of foreign companies were making investment in Pakistan.
To ensure quality IT
education, the government was establishing a National Accreditation
Council and a National Testing Service where all the IT graduates would
be required to undergo a test after completing their courses, he said.
After the success of medical transcription training programme, he said,
the government would launch the legal transcription programme which
would create more jobs and bring in foreign exchange.
The rates of bandwidth in
Pakistan, he said, were the lowest in the region. Atta said a large Call
Centre with 10,000 people was being established in Lahore by Align
Technologies. By July 2002, he said, high-speed fibre optics link would
be in place between Karachi and Peshawar and within this timeframe fibre
loop links would also be laid around all the major cities of Pakistan.
The government, he
maintained, was also launching Electronic Government programme within
8-10 weeks, which would be out-souring most of the jobs to the private
sector Pakistani companies. It would generate employment, improve the
financial standing of Pak IT firms and build their track record.
The e-commerce programme,
he said, was also on its way and the initiative was being exposed to
critical review through website. He said by the end of the next month,
inputs from various sources would be amalgamated and synthesised. He
said a timeframe was also being devised for banks to bring them into
electronic era.
Country Manager Cisco
Pakistan Agha Aleem Ahmed said the purpose of Cisco Expo was to provide
the latest networking technology solutions to local business leaders and
senior technology managers. He said Pakistan was rapidly becoming a
centre for e-commerce activities with increasing number of organisations
and business embracing the power of the Internet. The technical session
of the Cisco Expo 2001 dilated upon IP-Optical, Content Delivery,
Broadband Access, Security and Virtual Private Networks.
