Minister inaugurates Pakistan’s first e-Rozgar Centre

ISLAMABAD: Caretaker Federal Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunications Dr Umar Saif on Tuesday inaugurated the country’s first e-Rozgar Centre in collaboration with Excel Consulting Services.

The centre boasts around 100 workstations fully equipped with state-of-the-art facilities tailored for freelancers, with plans to expand it to 300 workstations in the future.

Additional Secretary MoITT Ayesha Moriani, Member IT Syed Junaid Imam, Project Director Amir Ahmed, Chairman EC Services Nazir Qureshi, officials of MoITT, NTS and PSEB, and a large number of freelancers were present on the occasion, the official news agency reported.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr Umar Saif said that with the establishment of the e-Rozgar Centre, the project of setting up 10,000 e-Rozgar Centres across the country has now begun officially.

“We have also fulfilled another promise made to the people, where a significant number from the existing 1.5 million and upcoming new freelancers can work independently at very low rates,” the minister said.

He said the best facilities including high-speed internet, UPS, training centres, individual cabins, meeting rooms and separate office rooms for start-ups have been provided to freelancers at the e-Rozgar Centre.

The minister said that with the completion of the great project, IT exports would soon be increased by $10 billion annually and under the public-private partnership, these centres would also be able to significantly increase the capacity and income of freelancers.

He said the Pakistan Software Export Board (PSEB) would be responsible for providing freelancers the required technical support for these centres.

Dr Umar Saif said that as promised e-Rozgar Centres in other cities were also nearing completion.

“We have taken all the required steps for the digital ecosystem in Pakistan, and we have also used all available forums to declare Pakistan as a ‘technology destination’ internationally,” he added.

He said that the toughest decisions related to the IT and telecom sector had been taken in the short period of the caretaker tenure.

The minister said that timely decisions had been made due to Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC).

Dr Umar said, “A conducive environment for the upcoming government and a complete roadmap of ‘Digital Pakistan’ has been made. Hopefully the newly elected government will continue to play its full role in promoting Pakistan’s digital economy.”