Staff Reporter Islamabad
Ministry for Information Technology (IT) and Telecommunication has launched two major Information and Communication Technology (ICT) projects to provide high speed mobile broadband services in Swat and empower the communities.
Federal Minister for IT and Telecommunication, Syed Amin Ul Haque and Federal Minister for Communications and Postal Services, Murad Saeed witnessed the contract signing ceremonies in Islamabad on Thursday.
The first project worth approximately Rs 781 Million was awarded through Universal Service Fund (USF) to Telenor for providing High Speed Mobile Broadband services in un-served and un-served areas of Swat district while the second project has been launched through the Pakistan Software Export Board (PSEB) to build a 22,000 square feet Software Technology Park (STP) in Mingora.
The provision of high speed mobile broadband services contract was signed by Haaris Mahmood Chaudhary, Chief Executive Officer, USF with Kamal Ahmed, Chief Corporate Affairs Officer, Telenor and the STP contract was signed by Usman Nasir, Managing Director, PSEB with Abdul Aziz, Chief Executive Officer, Vertexsoft Private Limited.
Federal Secretary, IT and Telecommunication, Dr. Sohail Rajput, Chairman PTA, Major General (R) Amir Azeem Bajwa, Member Telecom, Muhammad Omar Malik and Member IT, Syed Junaid Imam were also present at the ceremony.
Addressing the ceremony, Federal Minister for IT and Telecommunication, Syed Amin Ul Haque said, “Swat district is famous for its historical civilization and its most beautiful valleys, rivers and mountains which makes it a tourist paradise.
We wanted to equip this beautiful district with ICT facilities to connect it to the digital world. This dream is being realized today as we are digitally transforming the most remote and far-flung areas of Swat.”
The Federal Minister for IT and Telecommunication said that 65,695 people will benefit from High Speed Mobile Broadband services in 50 muazas spread over an area of ??1,501 sq. km. He also pointed out the multitude of challenges like mountains and difficult terrain in the area and considered it an important achievement of the USF.
