Minister of state for IT & Telecom Mrs Anusha Rehman has said that establishment of new technology Incubation centres across all four provinces will help our youngsters to become successful entrepreneurs and to earn reasonable livelihood. She stated this while Chairing Board of directors Meeting of National ICT R&d fund Co which was held here at MoIT today.
Minister said that our main policy focus is to provide quality digital and skill development training to our youth of the country and MoIT is committed to provide them all appropriate fora and tools through which where they could get quality training to succeed in the growing global freelancing market.
CEO ICT R&d fund Co apprised the board that the company has received very encouraging feedback from the industry for the advertised incubation center projects and this speaks volume of their level of interest and trust in our ICT related endeavors. He informed the board that more than thirty consortia comprising of more than hundred companies have submitted their bidding proposals for 04 new Incubation centres which are being reviewed on technical basis and successful bidders will be announced by first week of May 2017 after financial evaluation of the short listed proposals. The board agreed that to keep the momentum and industry interest going, RFPs will be floated for IOT, Robotics and fin- tech specialty innovation centres by the second week of May. The Minister further said that these Incubation centres will play a pivotal role in development of ICT skills, required for employability in the sector.
The Board discussed the proposal for the “Digital Skill training program and directed that Consultative sessions be held with industry academia and other stakeholders around the country and re- submit the comprehensive proposal before the board after getting input of all stakeholders The board also reviewed the status and pace of ongoing different projects of ICT R&D Fund Company.
The board also approved the rebranding proposal to have the new brand reflect the focus of the mainstream ICT R&D and innovation support activity going forward.
Anusha Rehman said that our government attaches highest priority to ICTs development to materialize Prime Minister Mohammad Nawaz Sharif vision of “Accelerated Digitization”. She directed the Company to gear up their efforts to meet given timelines for all 7 incubation centres within stipulated time frame.
Federal secretary IT Mr. Rizwan Bashir khan, Member Telecom Mudasar Hussain, Member HR, CEO ICT R&D Co. Mr Yousaf Hassan and other board members were also present in the meeting.
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