ISLAMABAD: Minister of State for Information Technology and Telecommunication Anusha Rehman Wednesday said establishment of new technology incubation centers across all four provinces will help youngsters to become successful entrepreneurs and earn reasonable livelihood.
She stated this while chairing 52nd Board of Directors meeting of National ICT R&d Fund which was held here.
The minister said their main policy focus was to provide quality digital and skill development training to youth of the country and ministry was committed to provide them all appropriate fora and tools through which they can get quality training to succeed in the growing global freelancing market.
The CEO ICT R&d Fund apprised the board that the company has received very encouraging feedback from the industry for the advertised incubation center projects and also informed the board that sealed bids submitted by more than thirty consortia comprising dozens of companies for establishment of four new Incubation centers have been reviewed on technical and financial basis and board granted the approval for awarding contract to the successful bidders after due deliberation.
The board directed to initiate a bidding process afresh for incubation center to be built in Quetta, Balochistan.
The board agreed that to keep the momentum and industry interest going, RFPs will be floated for IOT, Robotics and fin- tech specialty innovation centers at the earliest.
The Minister further said that these incubation centers will play a pivotal role in development of ICT skills, required for employability in the sector.
The board also reviewed the status and pace of different ongoing projects of ICT R&D Fund Company.
Anusha Rehman said the government attaches highest priority to ICTs development to materialize prime minister's vision of "Accelerated Digitization".
She directed the company to gear up its efforts to meet given timelines for all seven incubation centers.
Federal secretary IT Rizwan Bashir Khan, Member Telecom Mudasar Hussain, Member HR, CEO ICT R&D Yossaf Hassan and other board members were also present in the meeting. (APP)