Government to spend Rs1bn to boost IT industry
ISLAMABAD- The government plans to spend Rs1 billion on IT related services, to boost the business of the local IT industries. “This would generate employment opportunities for young professionals,” said Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunications, Awais Ahmad Khan Leghari.
He was addressing a seminar on ‘Empowerment through e-governance’ organised by Oracle Corporation Pakistan here on August 21, 2003. “It is our endeavour to promote the local software industry and the government will do all it can to achieve this target to enhance competition and the quality of services offered by the local software houses,” the Minister said.
He asked international companies to look at Pakistan as a vibrant and potentially lucrative market. He rejected wrong perceptions about the Pakistani market and said, “There is no truth in the perceptions that our market is small or there is no real support for the sector.”
The minister said big names in the market had already shown interest in coming and investing in Pakistan, which has emerged as a potential market for investment by the companies which earlier looked only at India as the key investment centre in the region.
Awais Leghari said he was happy that the government had been able to attract overseas Pakistanis to invest in businesses as diverse as call centres and consultancies. He expressed hope that companies like Microsoft, Bearing Point and Oracle would herald a positive change in the attitudes of multinationals about Pakistan. He applauded the work done by the Oracle to address the e-government space given the enormity of the sector and invited the company to invest in key areas such as development centres, support call centres, education and training and partnership with local companies at both national and international levels.
Speaking at the occasion, Federal IT Secretary, Khalid Saeed said the government service delivery was an essential part of any poverty alleviation strategy. He said there were many ways to secure empowerment through e-governance for nations.
Earlier, Samina Rizwan, Country Manager of Oracle Corporation Pakistan spoke about the significance of e-governance for Pakistan. She said dynamic and irreversible changes were taking place at every level of government and more than ever before, citizens were aware of their rights as customers of government. “They demand best services, environment, accessible and responsive to their needs”, she said, adding the challenge of the government in meeting these demands was to achieve integration between front-office service delivery and back-office fulfillment to efficiently and effectively connect citizens to government services.
Danish Yaqub, Business Manager of Oracle Sage, Malik Imran Ejaz, Business Manager of TechAccess, Ejaz Salim, Manager Oracle Projects TechAccesss and Sumera Afghan, Education Manager of Oracle Sage also spoke on the occasion.
Source: The News
Date:8/22/2003
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