ICT being given priority: minister

Rahman says Pakistan to have culture of start-ups

ISLAMABAD: Minister of State for Information Technology and Telecommunications Anusha Rahman said Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector was being given priority to expand knowledge based economy and spur growth.

At the inaugural ceremony of TDM to IP Migration Project of National Telecommunication Corporation (NTC), she shared that government’s vision is to become a strategic enabler by making full use of ICTs for an accelerated digitisation eco-system.

The project is aimed at replacing NTC’s old technology exchanges with state-of-the art IP based next generation network to provide better quality services to its designated subscribers. The minister said remote areas in the country are being linked through optic fibre cables (OFC) to ensure telephonic and broadband connectivity and Universal Service Fund (USF) has approved different projects.



Rahman said that approval has been granted for the establishment of a “tech-city” to promote IT and telecom in Pakistan that will give space to young entrepreneurs for establishing start-ups.



With regard to e-governance, she said it is being adopted as a tool to achieve goals of transparency and to deliver cost-effective public services to citizens. She said e-government Intranet has been completely established by the Ministry of Information Technology with the purpose of the e-filing module to promote less paper and digital government.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 2^nd, 2015.

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