PTA, CASE, IST sign MoUs

Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) on Thursday signed two Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) with Center for Advance Studies and Engineering (CASE) and Institute of Space Technology (IST) aimed at promoting telecom related research that would be beneficial for the institutions, the telecom industry as well as for the country.
Chairman PTA Dr Mohammed Yaseen, Member Technical PTA, Dr Khawar Siddique Khokhar, President CASE Dr Abdul Khaliq and Vice Chancellor IST, Brigadier Imran Rehman attended the signing ceremony. The MoUs would also boost mutual co-operation in the relevant fields and would enhance the industry academia linkages.
Dr Mohammed Yaseen said that currently Pakistan has state of the art telecom networks, while we are working on enhanced international communication links. "We are planning to improve terrestrial links with Afghanistan, Central Asia and China, which would help economy and flow of information in the country", he added.
He further said that PTA would provide data on telecom sector and expertise to CASE and IST reciprocally the Universities would encourage their students to undertake research in different areas of telecom sector. Chairman said that under the MoUs, PTA would help CASE and IST in identification of research areas. Similarly, CASE and IST would cooperate with PTA on different issues of trade, business and economy related to telecom sector.
President CASE Dr Abdul Khaliq and Vice Chancellor IST Brigadier Imran Rehman emphasised on the need for telecom research in the universities. They appreciated the fast growth in telecom sector and steps taken by PTA in this regard. Speakers said that main objectives of these collaborations are to support research integrated activities and to equip future leadership with theoretical and practical training in policy and regulatory issues of telecom sector. It is expected that the related organisations would benefit from this collaboration, as young experts would be conducting research in the relevant fields of telecom with guidance of the faculty and PTA, which could be converted into entrepreneurship. Industry is working on Venture Capital for entrepreneurship activities, they maintained.
It may be mentioned that PTA being an academia friendly organisation has already signed MoUs with COMSATS, NUST and UET Texila. PTA has been working continuously towards encouragement of research activities in telecom sector and taken number of initiatives to establish strong linkages with educational institutions for the promotion of telecom research. PTA has taken significant steps that have received positive response from all the stakeholders. These initiatives include PTA Gold Medal Scheme, Essay Competition on World Telecom Day and cash prizes for best research project competition and SMS-based information system for educational institutions.