Staff Report
ISLAMABAD: The National Information Technology Board (NITB) is playing an active role in implementing e-governance programs and during the last 4 years, the NITB developed and launched more than 31 portals and over 15 mobile applications.
An official of IT said that under the paperless track program, NITB ensured the implementation of e-office in 40 ministries and over 100 departments.
He said Ignite’s eight incubation centers have created an entrepreneurial vibe in the country which is helping in establishing new startups in almost every sector.
He said start-ups of the National Incubation Centers established in the country, received an investment of $20 million from various sources last year.
Under the National Freelance Training Program initiated and funded by the Ministry of IT, as many as 20 training centres were established across the country.
As many 8,647 graduates, he said, were trained through international standard IT courses, and these students contributed to the country’s economy by earning $23 million through freelancing after training.
During the year 2022, around 1,638 new IT companies got registered with Pakistan Software Export Board, while 761 call centres and 1463 freelancers were also registered with the PSEB.
He said that about 33 million people registered themselves for freelancing courses under the DG Skills Programs of Ignite, which is 75% more than the target. By June 2022, the freelancers trained with DG Skills have earned a whopping $290 million, adding to the country’s foreign exchange reserve.
Replying to a question, he said, foreign direct investment in the telecom sector had exceeded 1.2 billion dollars. While the Telecom revenue was Rs 605 billion in August 2018, which reached Rs 694 billion by December 2022 with an increase of Rs 89 billion, he added
