August 02, 2008	Saturday	Rajab 29, 1429

LAHORE, Aug 1: Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif has said that an Information Technology (IT) Park equipped with latest facilities will be established in the provincial metropolis to promote IT in the province and all possible assistance and facilities will be provided to private sector engaged in the promotion of IT.

According to a handout issued here, the chief minister said the project of setting up of an IT Centre in congested areas like Ferozepur Road was also important and a comprehensive report regarding feasibility of this project be presented to him.

He was addressing a high-level meeting to review promotion of IT here on Friday. The chief minister said that promotion of IT was of paramount importance for speedy development of the province and the Punjab government, while adopting a comprehensive strategy, would take solid steps to achieve this objective.

While reviewing the measures taken to promote IT in different countries, the chief minister said other countries, including some neighbouring countries, had made commendable achievements in the IT sector but we failed to achieve the desired results. He said that no attention was paid to this sector in the past, which could be judged from this fact that there was no continuity in the policies for the development of IT and secretaries of this department were changed frequently.

The chief minister directed the IT secretary to submit him a detailed report regarding the performance and projects of his department within seven days so that a better strategy could be prepared to promote IT.

Earlier, the IT secretary gave a detailed briefing on working of his department.

The Punjab chief secretary, Planning and Development Board chairman, Chief Minister's Monitoring and Implementation Cell chairman and the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry president attended the meeting beside representatives of private sector organisations associated with promotion of IT.

The private sector’s representatives also submitted their proposals regarding promotion of IT in the province on which the chief minister said that the government would extend all out cooperation to the private sector in this regard.