September 6, 2003	Saturday	Rajab 8, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, Sept 5: The Pakistan Computer Bureau (PCB) was asked on Friday to launch training of government employees to equip them with information technology (IT) skills.

The decision to this effect was taken during a high-level meeting of the ministerial review committee which was presided over by Federal Information Technology Minister Awais Ahmad Khan Leghari.

Awais Leghari said the PCB had already completed the basic IT training of nearly 15,000 government employees and would train another 10,000 employees in all the four provinces and AJK during the ongoing phase of the programme.

“This training will not only cover the basic IT usage on common platforms, but also the use of Open Source Software,” he said, describing the open source as a viable alternative to more expensive proprietary solutions which many countries, including China, were also pursuing as a hands-down route.

Mr Leghari said he had also directed the PCB to start training programmes in open source software that would include training of 100 system administrators and 1,000 end users in the first phase.

“The training is to be conducted in collaboration with major open source vendors so that trainees can get internationally accepted certification,” he said.

The projects approved at the meeting cover the training of government servants, end users, system administrators and setting up of a resource centre.

During the meeting, Awais Leghari said the projects were sure to increase efficiency of government employees after their training in IT skills.

“From the experiences of developed countries that have already implemented e-government programmes, it is established that change management and human factor are the most challenging aspects of e-government,” he said.

“Some countries have learnt this the hard way by investing millions of dollars in equipment before they were ready to use it,” he said. The equipment soon became obsolete and had to be replaced by the time people were in a position to use it, he added.

“Pakistan is obviously not going to make this mistake and will ensure that public funds are utilized to the maximum,” he said.

The minister explained that the use of open source softwares was also playing its part in reducing the use of unlicensed software and copyright violations.

“In order to make use of open source, indigenous capability has to be developed in supporting these systems,” he said.

During the meeting, the minister approved the establishment of an open source resource centre to support the local IT industry in developing solutions on the open source platform and help organizations migrating to open source.

The open source research centre will provide information on how to deploy open source systems, locate resources and give guidance on compatibility and standards.