KP govt to launch five IT-based projects

PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has signed agreements with various institutions and organizations for five information technology-based projects.

The projects include the establishment of Citizen Facilitation Centres, Nano Degree Programme for imparting digital skills to the youth, Paperless Government Programme, Establishment of Digital City in Haripur and Science & Technology Museum Mardan.

These projects would be completed at a total estimated cost of Rs 6 billion, said a handout. The contract signing ceremony was held here on Wednesday with Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Mahmood Khan as chief guest.

An agreement was signed with NADRA through which Citizen Facilitation Centres would be established at seven divisional headquarters of the province in the first phase and extended to other districts in the next phase.

This project would be completed at an estimated cost of Rs 2.1 billion aimed at providing various civic facilities to citizens under one roof. The citizens would get those services through a web portal and mobile app as well.

The second agreement was inked with Udacity organization to launch Nano Degree Programme to impart digital skills to the youth. The degrees would be provided to 400 youth. A digital economy and skills centre would be established at Mardan for the purpose.

Another agreement was signed with NETSOL to implement the Paperless Government Programme of the KP government. The programme is a major step toward digital governance in KP. Under the project, 170 processes of all 32 administrative departments have been identified for digitization.

A Document Workflow Management System will be developed to exchange the file system among departments paperless. An agreement was signed with the National Logistic Cell for establishing Pakistan Digital City as the first special technology zone of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the first purpose-built STZs of Pakistan.

The digital city would be established in Haripur spanning an area of 87 Kanal which would create over 20,000 jobs in the province. It will facilitate IT industries, promote the business of ICTs and software companies, encourage innovations and entrepreneurship and capitalize on the immense job creation potential of ICTs.

An agreement was signed with GSK to establish Science & Technology Museum in Mardan which will serve as the catalyst to promote Science and Technology and provide further exposure and knowledge to the society through diverse channels.

The museum would be established at an estimated cost of Rs 3 billion which will function to promote interest in Scientific learning and be engaged in the creative process to nurture the next generation of scientists in the province.

The chief minister said the provincial government has taken many initiatives including the E-Summary System pertaining to E-Governance focusing extensively on using ICT for the efficient delivery of services.