MoIT determined to promote IT sector for economic development

ISLAMABAD, Jan 31 (APP):To enhance growth momentum and take the information technology sector to the next level, Ministry of IT has been diligently working on IT infrastructure for economic development and prosperity.
Talking To APP Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunication, Anusha Rehman said, in the first three years of her tenure, the IT Ministry had been determinately working on IT infrastructure, adding that the ministry was still working on it with the realization that only strong infrastructure could take the IT sector to the next level.
She said the Broadband for Sustainable Development Programme, (USF)  Ministry of IT & Telecom  has been aggressively working to provide telecom services to the unserved areas across the country after the issuance of 3G/4G licenses .
In a recent conference, minster had claimed that 100% of the country would enjoy 3G coverage at least by year end, which currently stands at around 80%.
She said that this figure was expected to grow so that all of Pakistan was within the coverage area by December 2018.
She also unveiled the plan for the establishment of e-commerce platform, a full value chain, and bringing about 50,000 artisans’ to work online.
Anusha also highlighted that Pakistan is giving special attention to empower girls. She said that more than 146,000 girls in Islamabad, Bait-ul-Maal and women empowerment centers were currently learning how to code while using the latest state of the art technologies.
Anusha said that Pakistan had setup government-backed incubation centers in three major cities of the country. She mentioned that these over 100,000 square feet facilities would help entrepreneurs and startups.
She briefed that there were specialized training programs being provided for development of skilled human resource and as a result more than 20,000 skilled IT professions were produced by Pakistan every year.
She said that due to all these initiatives, the country’s IT exports have grown from a mere $300 million in 2013 to around $3.3 billion in just four years.
The IT Minister said that once the infrastructure was in place to achieve 100 percent 3G coverage, Pakistan will be ready to focus on the demand side of the technology; such as providing training for the masses who want to attain the best of digital skills.
To promote digital trends, tomorrow Ignite is going to Inaugurate Digiskill programme to provide digital skill training to over one million Pakistani youth.