Sindh government will sponsor the training of 7,000 youth in various trades of information technology (IT) under Benazir Bhutto Shaheed Youth Development programme, recently announced in the provincial budget 2008-09.
This was stated by the Sindh Minister for Information Technology (IT) Muhammad Raza Haroon while speaking at the launching of US-based IT security providers Blue Ridge Networks, Virginia Friday evening. Sindh Minister for Youth Affairs Syed Faisal Sabzwari, Chief Technical Officer Blue Ridge Network, Thomas A Gilbert and CEO of Cominfo System, Imad U Rehman were also present on the occasion.
Haroon said Sindh government will select these youth through competition and bear the expenses of their training in the IT institutes besides paying a stipend for one year depending on the nature of fields. In addition, the government will also pay for their certification and arrange for internship as well, he said.
"We are currently working on the selection of the areas which are in great demand by the IT industry so that the trained people should get jobs". The advertisement will be published in the newspapers in next two months, he opined. The minister said IT Department will also establish some 300 training centres in 23 districts, specially in the interior of Sindh to provide basic level training to youth in IT.
He said his department has a plan to make at least one member of every family as IT literate under its programme of "IT For All". Sindh Youth Minister Faisal Sabzwari said IT was a priority area for Sindh government as well as his party MQM. "We believe that IT will generate more jobs for youth".
He pointed out that call centres have already booked half of the 10,000 seats in the IT Towers in Karachi, which will be the tallest building in the country. "We have deliberately stopped further booking as the remaining 5,000 seats will be given to those companies which will seek offices for their call centres in IT Tower".
He assured for support to Blue Ridge Network and for full security to their investment in Pakistan. "We will be the true facilitator as IT was a priority area for us", he added.
Thomas Gilbert said his company was a complete solution providers in IT security including ATM, data transfer, etc. He said his company, which is in operations in USA for the last 14 years, will not compete with the large vendors already working in Pakistan but will supplement their IT security projects. Gilbert said his company has selected Cominfo Systems, also working in USA for the last 10 years to launch its products.
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