Organisers irked as minister ignores Navtec, Cisco function

The National and Technical Education Commission (Navtec) is not so important for the government as the Minister for Women Affairs, Sumaira Malik, did not turn up to attend its programme.
The organisers, who were visibly disturbed over the minister's last minute's absence from the function, had no other option for face saving but to announce that minister had to rush in emergency to attend some other important meeting.
The announcement perturbed many who took out time from their busy schedule for what the minister had to say on the joint initiative of Navtec and Cisco in order to improve global competitiveness of Pakistan's workforce.
The Navtec was established in order to assert that the role of skilled and technically educated manpower is essential for development of the economy. It was mandated with the responsibility to facilitate, regulate, and provide policy direction for technical education and vocational training to meet national and international demand for skilled manpower.
Muhammad Zaheer, Regional Director of Navtec said: "The national internet communication sector is growing at 40 percent a year. The country's telecom boom has created around 300,000 jobs in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector while creating huge demand for professional ICT workforce that can expertly meet the new age requirements of these positions".
He added that a competent technology workforce was a dire need of the country and Navtec through Cisco's Net Academy programme looks forward to train technology leaders of tomorrow, nationally and internationally.
"Navtec is very pleased to partner with Cisco, in order to support its mandate of producing ICT trained professionals that would make Pakistan a globally competitive nation", he said.
He highlighted that the Cisco Networking Academy programme, established in 1997, teaches students networking and other information technology-related skills, preparing them for jobs as well as for higher education in engineering, computer science and related fields.
Since its launch, the programme has grown to more than 11,000 academies in more than 150 countries with a curriculum taught in 11 different languages. More than two million students participate in academies operating in high schools, colleges and universities, technical schools, community-based organisations, and other educational programmes around the world.
He told the audience that the Cisco Systems was committed to support Pakistan in identifying ways of using technology to drive efficiency, and improve economic growth. Pakistan is presently the fastest growing country out of the 65 countries of the Middle East and Africa region, posting 191 percent growth in student's enrolment.
Cisco's last year (2006) graduating number of 1818 Pakistani students has already been far exceeded for 2007. It has 82 Net Academies to its credit of which 14 are only for females. Cisco delivers gender development initiatives world-wide that are changing the world for women and for technology. In a country where women make up almost half the population, they have the power to make a difference, when given the opportunities and the environment. Dr Qasim Sheikh, CEO of R & D Fund under Ministry of IT said: "Cisco is committed to increase the impact of women on all aspects of technology in Pakistan.
R&D fund strongly endorses such gender initiatives and is very pleased with the leadership being demonstrated". He said that R&D Fund was very keen in soliciting proposals for the development of ICT with the country and promoting this cause within the country. In this regard, the Fund would encourage universities and colleges as well as other national enterprises to approach the fund with concrete propositions for national development through information communication technologies.
The R&D Fund under the Ministry of IT has been specifically launched to facilitate various country transformational initiatives in information communication technology. These initiatives directly support the country's socio-economic goals. Dr Aamir Matin, Country Manager of Cisco said, "everything is moving towards the internet. Be it voice or TV, everything is and will flow over the internet.
Connecting people through internet brings benefits by providing speedy access to valuable resources and knowledge and by enabling the sharing of ideas and information to all citizens regardless of their location, gender or economic position".