IT Park to provide 15,000 job opportunities

Islamabad:The Information Technology Park will provide employment opportunities to about 15,000 IT experts, students and professionals related to the industry after its completion.

The foundation stone of Park was laid on Chak Shahzad on May 6 by Minister for IT and Telecommunication Syed Amin Ul Haque which was aimed at fulfilling Digital Pakistan Vision. An official of the ministry of IT said that the project would be completed in 30 months with the total cost of Rs13.72 billion.

The park would not only mitigate the shortage of infrastructure for IT sector but also facilitate technology transfer through industry and academia linkages, support technology commercialization, links tertiary education and production, promote research and development; besides enhancing IT exports and the industry competitiveness.

IT Park Islamabad would consist of twelve-storey (two basements or ground floors plus 10 storeys) self-contained building having covered area of 66,893 square meters. The IT Park would be developed with state-of-the-art infrastructure and allied facilities for IT companies with financial assistance of Exim Bank, Korea, he added. He said similar type of IT Park would also be established in Karachi soon.

Islamabad IT Park initially provided office space to around 120 start-ups and small to medium enterprises and other ancillary facilities like testing laboratories, class rooms, industry academia linkage centre, and auditorium etc.

He noted that currently total number of software technology parks (STPs) in Pakistan was 15 including three in Islamabad, two in Rawalpindi, eight in Lahore and one each in Karachi and Gilgit.

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