'National IT Programme' shortly: minister

The Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunications will present a 'National IT Programme' to the Federal Cabinet shortly.
The plan envisages introduction of e-services, paperless administration and access to information at federal, provincial and local bodies levels to all functionaries as well as general public.
This was stated by the Minister of Information Technology and Telecom, Awais Ahmed Khan Leghari, at a seminar on 'Enterprise Storage & Disaster Solution', organised by AMZ Technologies here on Tuesday.
Pakistan would give red carpet treatment to those international information technology companies who shift their data operation in the country, the minister said, adding that the government would support any such initiative which would enhance the understanding of dependable and reliable systems.
"There are incentives that the government is providing to attract companies to invest in Pakistan, and we are ready to go extra mile to ensure that we provide the right environment that is conducive to doing business with any firm in Pakistan."
He said that he has recently initiated a programme where the government will particularly subsidise or even in some cases bear all the cost associated with training Pakistani experts in areas that the company identifies.
"We would be glad to bear the cost of training in disaster recovery and business continuity planning it is believed that there is a market for these services either abroad or within the country," he said, adding that the ministry fully supports efforts by the private sector to introduce global best practices into the Pakistani market.
Awais said, the government of Pakistan is determined to fight and eliminate all types of terrorism including 'data terrorism'.
He declared combat against data terrorism and invited the IT professional to join hands with the Ministry to overcome denial of service attacks and attempts to access sensitive Pakistani corporate and Government data bases.
He emphasised the role of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in modern day economies as driver.
Awais said in the role of Information and Communication Technologies in modern-day economies a new paradigm has emerged.
It has played a key role in accelerating development in the East Asian economies.
The ICT is one of the primary drivers of GDP in these countries today. In general, the services sector contributes to over 65 percent of the GDP, of which Information and Communication Technology's contribution and impact is over 25 percent.
Earlier, the chairman of AMZ Ventures, Naseem Mirza, said the information availability and integrity are susceptible to human error, severe weather, disruptions of electrical or communications networks and natural or man-made disasters.
He said: "We need business continuity plan for smooth running of the institution, and to prevent unexpected losses due to unforeseen reasons."
He proposed that the State Bank of Pakistan, Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) and Ministry of IT & Telecom should devise the mechanism for corporate and financial sector to have mandatory business continuity plan to safeguard the stakeholders.
Afghan S. Yashaullah, Andrew Calthorpe, Zaigham Mahmood, David Beck, Mahesh Vaidyanathan, Omar Hatmi, Rear Admiral Shahid Farooq, Zafar Iqbal Saddiqui also spoke on the occasion.