Title: Cabinet to approve e-governance project on Wednesday; 2 MB bandwidth rates to be reduced to $4,000: Science and Technology minister
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| Monday, October 15, 2001 |
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Cabinet to approve
e-governance project on Wednesday; 2 MB bandwidth rates to be
reduced to $4,000: Science and Technology
minister |
| NASIR SIDDIQUI |
.......KARACHI : Federal
Minister for Science and Technology Dr Ata-ur-Rahman has said that
e-governance project, which has already been submitted to the
federal cabinet, will be approved on next Wednesday (October 17).
Speaking as chief guest at the inauguration of first international
multinode video conferencing held by the Karachi Institute of
Information Technology at its premises on Sunday, the minister said
that after the approval of the e-governance project by the cabinet,
the government will spend about Rs 2.6 billion on this
head.
.......He said out of Rs 2.6
billion, Rs 1.6 billion would be provided by the private sector
while Rs one billion would be provided by the government.
.......He said that with the launching of
e-governance project the problems of people regarding the payment of
various utilities bills will be solved as they will be able to
deposit their utility bills through ATMs or the Internet without
being bothered to make long queues on the banks counters.
.......He said that the government has embarked
upon various IT promotion programmes in the country.
.......The minister said that post-September 11
events, however, provided an opportunity to Pakistan to grab
enormous opportunities in the information technology to catch up
with the other countries which have made tremendous progress in this
field. He said IT was progressing very fast but due to the September
11 attacks on the US, the progress has been slowed down quite
considerably.
.......Dr Ata said that
Pakistan is passing through its most crucial time and expressed the
hope that by the grace of Almighty Allah the country would come out
of it quite successfully.
.......About
the measures the ministry of science and technology has taken to
promote IT in the country, the minister said that the Pakistan
Telecommunication Company Limited had done a great job in improving
the basic infrastructure in the telecommunication sector. The PTCL
authorities really deserve to be complimented for the job they had
done.
.......He said that the S&T
ministry was also planning to start giving scholarships for those
students who want to do doctorate in the computer technology and the
government would provide them an stipend of Rs 400,000 per student
per year. He said batches would be formed and each one would consist
of 20 students.
.......He said that
the government had provided Internet facility in 580 cities and
villages while in India the facility is available in only 150
cities.
.......Dr Ata said the 2 MB bandwidth rates had also been uniformed
at 6,000 dollars. He said these rates had been reduced from
87,000 dollars a few years back. He said the government was also
planning to reduce it to 4,000 dollars per month.
.......The minister said
that now all the Internet service providers (ISPs), software
companies and other institutions would be provided 2MB at 6,000
dollars.
.......Dr Ata
said that the government had also ensured the availability of
Internet at 265 MB from 32 MB two years back.
.......He said the number of Internet users has
increased from 100,000 to 750,000 in the country.
.......The minister said the Internet facility
has already been provided at 400 petrol pumps of Pakistan State Oil
and added that about 1,800 more kiosks would be set up by the PSO
within the next three years. Plans are also being made to set up
this facility at the post offices in cities and villages, he
said.
.......Earlier, the minister
talked to foreign IT experts based in the USA and England through
the multinode video technology.
.......Minister for Interior Moinuddin Haider,
who was present on the occasion, also talked to the foreign IT
experts. He, however, concentrated his talk on the present measures
the government has taken with regard to post-September 11
events.
.......He briefed the foreign
experts that law and order situation is under control and that few
elements in the country are protesting against the air strikes by
America on Afghanistan.
.......Earlier, KIIT Chairman Syed Mazhar Ali
made a presentation on the activities of the institute.
.......Copyright 2001 Business
Recorder (http://www.brecorder.com) |
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