Federal Minister for IT and Telecommunication Syed Amin Ul Haque paid a visit to National Telecommunication Corporation (NTC) Headquarters on Monday.
On behalf of NTC Management & Staff, Managing Director NTC, Brig (Retd) Viqar Rashid Khan warmly welcomed theFederal Minister for IT and Telecommunication. A short briefing on NTC was given which was followed by a visit to National Data Center (NDC).
MD NTC, Brig (Retd) Viqar Rashid Khan briefed the Federal Minister on the major achievements made by NTC during the past six years with special emphasis on the measures adopted during Covid-19 Pandemic. MD NTC also briefed the Minister about the establishment of NTC cloud based Tier-III, ISO 27001 certified National Data Centre in a record time of five months and provision of Telecom/ ICT services during COVID-19. During the COVID-19 Pandemic, NTC National Data Centre acted as the main platform for hosting all the systems/Web/Mobile applications developed for data acquisition and data analysis that assisted NCOC and other policy/decision makers for taking appropriate corrective measures.
The Federal Minister was told that NTC is also providing video conference system for holding important meetings of the PM, Cabinet, ECC and NCOC etc. So far, over 429 video meetings have been arranged by NTC flawlessly. He was told that prudent action by NTC has saved the Government from many problems during COVID-19. The Federal Minister was further told by MD NTC, Brig ® Viqar Rashid Khan that during his tenure, NTC achieved unprecedented record growth and performance in the field of Operation, Technical, Finance and Administration as under:-
a. Record Growth in Exchanges from 142 to 462, overall growth ---- 225%.
b. Expansion of exchanges to New Districts/ Cities throughout Pakistan from 66 to 99, overall growth
50%
c. ADP completion ---- Average 81% annually with 100% completion in FY 2016-17 & 2019-20 which is
a record performance in any Public Sector organization.
d. Subscribers Growth ---- 15%
e. Broadband Subscribers Growth ---- 115%
f. NTC International Gateway Exchange (IGE) has earned approx. US$ 18 Millions (Foreign Exchange)
since April 2015.
g. NTC National Data Center (NDC) was established in a record time of five years.
h. NTC NDC is Tier-III compliant cloud based ISO-27001 certified Data Center.
i. NTC almost doubled its Revenue since 2013 i.e. from Rs 2.4B in FY 2013-14 to Rs. 4.2B in
FY 2019- 20.
j. Since 2013, record increase in NTC Profit @ 440% with Profit of Rs. 578 Million in FY 2019-20.
Speaking on the occasion, Syed Amin Ul Haque, Federal Minister for IT praised NTC performance and congratulated NTC Management for phenomenal development of ICT infrastructure for Public Sector.
He said that the security of the defense installations must be made more better. He said that NTC should also extend its outreach to KPK and Balochistan.Federal Minister for IT said that Ministry of IT is taking steps for the provision of broadband services in far-flung areas of the country.
The Federal Minister also appreciated MD NTC for his leadership and management during Covid-19 Pandemic and assured his full support. The Minister said that nobody predicted COVID-19 in 2020. After the outbreak of COVID-19 in Pakistan in March 2020, various other departments were demanding funds and equipment but NTC was ready and fully prepared to meet the emergent situation. My full compliments to NTC and its management. MD NTC thanked Federal Minister for reposing his trust in NTC and assured that NTC is fully committed to achieve Digital Pakistan- a vision of Prime Minister of Pakistan.
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