Finance Minister Ishaq Dar on Saturday accorded in principle approval for the USF telecentre project throughout Pakistan. The minister also simultaneously ordered release of Rs 5 billion from Federal Consolidated Fund (FCF) for the USF project. In addition Rs 1 billion would also be released for the R&D projects. The finance minister had a detailed meeting with Minister for IT, Anusha Rehman along with senior officials of her ministry and representatives of the USF.
The finance minister was given a detailed presentation on the telecentre project and informed that the basic idea behind setting up these centres was to provide access to people in far-flung areas of the country to e-communication and IT facilities. He was apprised that 500 telecenters were proposed to be built at a cost of Rs 11.5 billion in three years. The minister was also informed that 417 sites for the centres had been surveyed to date, and 217 were qualified sites. The minister was also briefed about the design and layout of the telecenters which he highly appreciated.
Dar said the government while announcing the budget 2014-15 had resolved to facilitate the public at large in terms of IT communication facilities and was accordingly releasing the requisite funds for undertaking the telecentre project. He also lauded the efforts of IT Minister Anusha Rehman in promoting IT in the country. The meeting was also attended by Secretary Finance, Dr Waqar Masood and Advisor Finance Division, Rana Assad Amin.-PR