The National ICT R&D Fund’s Board of Director has principally approved three projects, during its 41st Meeting held in MoIT here in Islamabad.
The meeting was chaired by Minister of State IT Mrs. Anusha Rehman, Federal Secretary IT Mr. Azmat Ali Ranjha, Chairman PTA Member Telecom, Member HR and other Board Members were also present in the meeting.
These three approved projects include “Specialized training in areas of ICT skills” , “ICT for women entrepreneurship program” and “Scoping study for National Agriculture information management and dissemination system”. CEO ICT R&D Fund co. has been directed by the Board to liaison with Ministry of Agriculture and National Commission for status on women (NCSW) in order to get their buy in.
Anusha Rehman said that although Pakistan is ranked 4th on E-lance in terms of top earning freelance countries, however the hourly rate for each developer is quite low. ICT training program can help them to overcome their short comings to improve their skills.
“Specialized training in areas of ICT skills program” will aim to empower Pakistani freelancers to get competitive rates
The State Minister in recently held meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on information Technology stated that IT/telecom sector of the country registered 46 percent growth during last two years. The number of registered IT companies increased from 300 to 1100, besides around 800 call centers in the country.
According to the State Bank of Pakistan, telecom sector exports is $370 million, however according to the Pakistan Software Export Board (PSEB) study it is around $2.8 billion as many companies do not bring their total remittances in the country due to flaws in policies.
The government has given the target to increase IT exports to $500 million by 2018. The minister further said that Pakistan is ranked at no 4 in the world after USA, UK and Ukraine with respective to E-lancing. Currently 75,000 people are involved in the E-lancing and export software; however the data is not being recorded.
“ICT for women entrepreneurship program” will aim to leverage ICT for the benefit of girls and women
She further said that SBP has issued policy directives with IT ministry recommendation to introduce six-digit code to ensure transparency in export data. The Minister said that IT sector is enjoying tax holiday status from 2000 till 2016.
The Minister further said that its our utmost desire to reduce digital divide in arena of ICT. The ICT for women entrepreneurship program will help us in leveraging ICT capacity for the benefit of our women and girls. Therefore, this Capacity building program will be initiated in federal viz a viz provincial capitals, simultaneously.
The third project will aim to use IT for increasing food security and ensure sustainable agricultural growth
Anusha Rehman has further said that Agriculture constitutes the largest sector of Pakistan’s economy, with 24% contribution in GDP and having huge potential to become Food basket; in the central Asian region. However, utilization of ICTs is required to address the needs of sustainable growth in agriculture to maintain food security and economic growth of the country.
A National Agriculture information management and dissemination system will be a step in the right direction for achieving the goal. The Board also directed ICT R&D Fund Company to liaison with Ministry of Agriculture and NCSW to get their input before finalizing the RFP.
