IT, computer industry's issues: PCA and ICCI float idea of 'digital ministry'
Pakistan Computer Association (PCA) and Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) Tuesday jointly floated a new idea of 'Digital Ministry' in Pakistan to exclusively deal with the issues of computer industry and Information Technology (IT), it is learnt.
In view of the important developments taking place in the computing world, the government of Pakistan should establish a Digital Ministry on earliest bases. This step would not only connect the industry within Pakistan but also enable us to enhance our outreach and access to global markets.
Naveed Malik acting President Islamabad chamber of commerce and Industry said this while terming the demand as a shared voice of the IT community in Pakistan. Therefore, the only way forward available to us was to learn to compete and create your own room, but it required selfless efforts on parts of all stakeholders involved.
Khawer Mughal Senior Vice Chairman Pakistan Computer Association added that IT Community in Pakistan believed that the proposed ministry should carefully look in to and create a viability/feasibility to take Pakistan to a respectable level amongst the high tech efficient countries.
This should be done on the basis of evaluating that we should set up a target to convert our existing cable system entirely on Fiber Optic cables and how to encourage, have tax holidays for start ups who would like to enter in to any advancement related to IT Industry as a whole. Khawer Mughal added that a complete overhaul was required to meticulously go through each segment of IT related business company, whether in Software or Hardware to identify areas of weakness and strengths, in which time and money investment is required to be made, to Identify and employee the appropriate professionals from the relevant field and finally, to create a think tank from the IT industry to effectively oversee and write the terms of reference (TOR's) devising an agenda for the next 25-50 years.