The State Minister for Information Technology Anusha Rahman on Wednesday said facilitating the educated and tech-literate young people through technological advancement is priority of the government. She was speaking at a ceremony held here to launch Mobilink's flagship Corporate Responsibility initiative-'Make Your Mark.'
The minister said, "Make Your Mark" is an encouraging step from Mobilink and will go a long way in supporting the government's strategy to facilitate the young generation. "We are confident that together with this interest, investment and support of corporate organisation we will be able to capitalise telecommunications infrastructure for socio-economic development of Pakistan", she added.
The minister further said the prime minister has approved Tele-centre project worth Rs 18 billion to expand broadband and other services to under-served areas of the country. In this regard, proposals for implementation of the project have been shared with provinces after which it would be completed in next three years. The minister further said that a proposal is under consideration according to which 135 centres of Bait-ul-Mal would be provided with IT labs for female.
Chairman Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) Dr Syed Ismail Shah said that now efforts must be made to go beyond the CSR and adopt business earning applications. He appreciated the initiative of Mobilink and hoped it would provide young people with technology tools, support and mentoring, and in some cases access to basic education to help them tackle challenges at an individual, community and national level to shape their future.
Commenting on the launch of 'Make Your Mark,' President and CEO Mobilink Jeffrey Hedberg said, "it is a unique initiative that feeds directly into Mobilink's corporate responsibility strategy and aims at helping young people in Pakistan through technology, expertise and knowledge".
He said the initiatives planned under the programme would offer support to a variety of beneficiaries to tackle the socio-economic challenges in Pakistan. The ultimate aim of this initiative is enabling a generation of educated young people. The 'Make Your Mark' initiative is a key element of Vimpel Com's corporate responsibility strategy, with the objective of `Helping young people shape their future'. This also recognises the challenges that today's young people face regarding issues such as poverty, youth unemployment, inadequate healthcare and education, food security, resource scarcity and climate change-reinforced by a rapidly growing population.
Under the Make Your Mark umbrella Mobilink has partnered with LUMS Centre of Entrepreneurship, Institute of Social and Policy Sciences, Guarant Co and Pakistan Center for Philanthropy (PCP) and working on setting up an incubator for budding entrepreneurs, expanding its literacy programme to reach out to an additional 3,750 rural females and establishing six state-of-the-art ICT labs at schools adopted by NGOs.
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