Govt to manufacture economical phones, says minister

MANSEHRA: Federal Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunication Ameenul Haq has said that the government wanted to introduce economically cheap and high-tech cellular phones to save its foreign exchange reserves.

“Presently more than 160 million people have been using the imported smartphones in the country and we want to shift them to locally made gadgets to save our foreign reserves,” he said while speaking at the inaugural ceremony of Software Technology Park at Hazara University here on Friday.

He said that countries spending their financial resources on digital technology were rapidly developing and sailing atop the field of science and technology. “We have to develop such high tech parks to stand among the respectable and developed countries,” Haq said.

Federal Minister for Railways Azam Khan Swati, while speaking on the occasion, emphasised on the students to spend their energies on their education. “If you don’t receive education with honesty and dedication, you won’t compete with your competitors in the country and abroad,” he said.

Swati said the government had laid the foundation for Hazara University in 2000 and it achieved the great milestones in the curricula and co-curricular fields.

Speaking on the occasion, Chief Executive Officer of Tech Valley Umar Farooq said that around 12,000 students of Hazara University could directly enjoy access to Google during the next four months.