January 4, 2006	Wednesday	Zilhaj 3, 1426

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ISLAMABAD, Jan 3: Minister for Information Technology Awais Ahmad Khan Leghari on Tuesday said the government was willing to provide financial assistance for capacity-building and training of professionals in any specific area required by the telecom and IT industry in Pakistan.

“The government is keen to train professionals in 10 to 15 niche areas to make up for the shortage of top quality human resource required at different levels by the industry,” he said while speaking at a workshop on “National R&D Fund Policy Vision”.

The workshop was jointly organised by the Ministry of Information Technology, MIMOS Berhad Malaysia, official consultants for National R&D Fund and the FAST National University of Computer and Emerging Sciences here.

The seminar drew a sizable participation from all major stake-holders and representatives of the industry, who gave detailed input and proposals to be incorporated in the R&D Fund policy framework.

The suggestions included preparation of R&D fund policy document, legal, financial and administrative structure, R&D fund procedures and manuals and the concordant set of rules and related documents.

The minister said the government took a major initiative last year to address the shortage of top level human resource by spending Rs200 million to send 20 talented young professionals abroad to pursue PhD degree and another 40 professionals to complete MS programmes in disciplines related to IT and telecom.

“We can also use this fund to provide scholarships to the deserving students to pursue master’s and PhD level programmes at the premier universities in the country,” he said.

He said the current amount available in the R&D Fund account was Rs2.5 billion and the balance would top-up through contributions made by operators at one per cent of the gross annual revenues of fixed line operators and 0.5 per cent of mobile cellular operators.

The minister said the government had also planned to set up a Venture Capital Fund with $5 million seed money to be invested into new innovative ideas and products in the ITC area.

He said the government was willing to provide financial support for research aimed at ensuring socio-economic benefits, generating employment opportunities and meeting the requirements of the industry.

“It is necessary for the academia and the industry to interact with each other and pinpoint areas which require research and development,” he said.

He defended a slow utilisation of the R&D Fund, citing the low quality of projects and proposals put forward to the board for consideration.

It would have been a sheer waste of money had we used this fund in abandon to create artificial clouts and nanotechnology, he said, adding the government had deliberately taken time to put in place best international practices and business processes to use the fund in an efficient manner.