ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Software Export Board (PSEB), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Information Technology Board, and the University of Science and Technology, Bannu, on Wednesday, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for setting up the first ever software technology park in Bannu, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Osman Nasir, managing director PSEB, Prof Dr Khairuz Zaman, Vice Chancellor University of Science and Technology, Bannu, and Dr Sahibzada Ali Mahmud, MD KP IT Board signed the MoU, here on Wednesday.
The signing ceremony was attended by Syed Aminul Haque, Federal Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunication, Muhammad Atif Khan, Minister for Science, Technology & IT, KP, Dr Sohail Rajput, Federal Secretary IT, and senior officials from the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication.
Haque said that Pakistan’s IT industry has achieved significant expansion and exports growth. The present government is focusing on the development of the IT industry in the secondary and tertiary cities of Pakistan to generate holistic economic growth beyond Pakistan’s major tech hubs, he said.
He emphasized upon the need for close liaison between the IT industry and the public sector entities for ensuring holistic growth of Pakistan’s IT sector.
Atif Khan said that the steps being taken by Federal Ministry of IT and Telecommunication for fulfilling the vision of “Digital Pakistan” are appreciable.
He said that the provincial government wanted to jointly work with the Federal Ministry of IT and Telecommunication for the promotion of IT.
Rajput said the MoU for establishment of a Software Technology Park in Bannu is a major achievement as it covers multifaceted cooperation in terms of establishing a software technology park at the university campus, facilitating startups and freelancers as well as enhancing industry-academia linkages for holistic growth of IT industry in the region.
Nasir said that seven software technology parks with a combined space of 153,949 sq ft have been setup since January 2021.
Work is well under way towards establishing software technology parks in universities such as the Sir Syed University of Engineering and Technology (SSUET) Karachi, NED University of Engineering and Technology, Karachi, and Quaid-e-Awam University of Engineering, Sciences and Technology University (QUEST), Nawabshah.
Currently, there are 19 software technology parks across Pakistan with 1.2million sq ft of space offering state-of-the-art facilities to technology companies, he said.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021
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