Parliament to become paperless by January 2023: minister

Minister says ministry of information technology would arrange training for parliamentarians to make them familiar with technology

ISLAMABAD: Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunication Syed Aminul Haque Wednesday said that all business of the Parliament of Pakistan would be made paperless by January 2023.

Addressing the ground-breaking ceremony of “Islamabad IT Park” along with South Korean Ambassador Suh Sangpyo, he said, “The consultant has been hired to digitalise the Parliament by January 2023. All the call attention notices, adjourned motions, attendances, voting and other businesses will be done online through technology.”

The minister said the ministry of information technology would also arrange training for the parliamentarians to make them familiar with the technology.

Aminul said that proposal is also under consideration to digitalise legislative business and standing committee meetings.

He said that for the first time, a paperless cabinet meeting was held, which was a great milestone achieved in the history of the country.

He said that the park would include a twelve-storey building, having covered area of 66,893 square metres.

The IT park would be developed with state-of-the-art infrastructure and allied facilities for IT companies with financial assistance of Exim Bank of Korea, he added.

The project, he said, would be completed in 30 months with the total cost of Rs13.72 billion.

He said that the project of establishing the park in Islamabad was linked with the steps for fulfilling Digital Pakistan Vision, which not only mitigate the shortage of infrastructure for IT sector but also facilitate technology transfer through industry and academia linkage, support technology commercialisation, links education and production, promote research and development, and enhances IT exports and industry competitiveness.

He said that the Islamabad IT park project is expected to provide over five thousand direct and indirect employment opportunities during the construction phase and about 15,000 employment opportunities to IT experts, students and persons of concerned industry after the completion.

He said that a similar type of IT park would also be established in Karachi soon.

The minister added that the Islamabad IT park will initially provide office space to around 120 startups and small to medium enterprises, and other ancillary facilities like testing laboratories, class rooms, industry academia linkage centre, and auditorium.

He noted that presently total 15 software technology parks are in Pakistan, including three in Islamabad, two in Rawalpindi, eight in Lahore and one each in Karachi and Gilgit-Baltistan.

“We want to establish software technology parks in many small and big cities of the country,” he said, adding that the ministry’s attached department, Pakistan Software Export Board, is working to establish software technology parks in Quetta, Gwadar, Faisalabad, Bannu, Swat, Mardan, Sukkur and Hyderabad.

He said that Rs31 billion have been invested over the last two and a half years to improve connectivity across the country.

The minister said, whilst penetration of 4G services is being increased, the 5G wireless technology would be introduced by the end of this year.

He added that the ministry is committed for the provision of telecom services across the country, including Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) and Gilgit-Baltistan (GB).

He said that said that Pakistan’s IT export remittances have surged to $1.70 billion at a growth rate of 45.80 percent during July-April of fiscal year 2020-21, in comparison to $1.17 billion during the same period of last financial year.

Speaking on the occasion, Ambassador Suh Sangpyo said that IT parks’ constructions were key projects of the Economic Development Cooperation Fund (EDCF).

In the year 2019, a framework agreement was being signed with Pakistan to approve $500 million of EDCF loans that would give financial space for the construction of infrastructure in Pakistan. “Today, we witness together a tangible outcome of the EDCF projects,” he added.

He said, “It is very positive to see that revolutionary steps are being taken in IT and telecommunication sector of Pakistan and the Islamabad IT Park will prove to be an important milestone for the ministry of IT and Pakistani skilled persons.”

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