Briefing reporters following the cabinet meeting the K-P Information Minister, Mian Iftikhar Hussain, said that under this plan call centres, IT cities and parks will be established all over the province and IT will be developed to achieve the aim of forming an effective e-government.
The government plans to train people for the promotion of IT and at least 14,000 graduates will be trained over a period of three years. “Approximately 2,000 graduates will be trained during the first year, 5,000 during the second year and 7,000 will be trained during the third year,” Mian Iftikhar said.
He said that at least 15,000 jobs will be created during the coming three years in the sectors of call centres, IT parks, software houses, the corporate sector, banks, financial institutions and other organisations.
The provincial cabinet, he said, also approved Rs1 billon for the implementation of this project and directed the concerned officials to prepare a roadmap of the plan by the third or fourth week of November, so that it can be put up for approval before the steering committee.
The cabinet also approved building IT parks in Peshawar and Abbotabad. “The provincial government will provide facilities and incentives to promote information technology and will work with the private sector to achieve this objective,” Mian Iftikhar said.
The government will provide incentives to investors by the federal, Punjab and Sindh governments including the provision of international standards in the business environment.
Mian Iftikhar said that a nine member committee would be set up to ensure the implementation of this project and will be headed by the KPK Chief Minister and other members will include the provincial minister of Information Technology, Additional Chief Secretary, Secretary finance, two members from information and communication industry, vice chancellor Engineering university and Managing Director Pakistan Software Export Board (PSEB).
The board will be a policy making body and it will devise overall policies and will do the final selection of IT companies, call centers, IT training institutes and will also devise a process of selection and will also approve grants and other incentives. Mian Iftikhar said that the provincial cabinet was also briefed on the Benazir Health Support System in the province.
The cabinet was told that there were around two per cent hepatitis B patients in the KPK and seven per cent were hepatitis C patients.
He said that the cabinet was told that every eleventh person in the province could suffer from hepatitis and the amount incurred in the treatment of this disease was around Rs50.7 billion.
During 2009-12, around Rs360 million has been allocated for the control and prevention of hepatitis and the cabinet has also approved an allocation of Rs200 million for the treatment of registered hepatitis patients during the ongoing year, he added.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 2nd, 2010.
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