ISLAMABAD, April 22: Federal Minister for Information Technology Awais Ahmad Khan Leghari on Thursday approved five projects costing Rs208 million to strengthen the country's IT industry.

The minister approved the projects while presiding over the ministerial review meeting at the IT ministry. Senior officials of the ministry and heads of attached departments were also present on the occasion.

The meeting approved establishment of a national IT development and promotion unit at the cost of Rs38 million for carrying out an in-depth analysis of specific areas and making recommendations to the ministry.

The unit will provide a forum where private sector, the academia and other experts would collectively carry out studies to identify impediments and enablers in the areas of e- governance, IT industry development and human resource development.

The minister stressed the importance of having specific timetables by which each working group should deliver tangible output in the form of written reports containing explicit recommendations.

Mr Leghari also approved a Rs36 million project to support the local IT industry in getting COPC 2004 certification. Call Operations Performance Centre (COPC) is a world-renowned standard for quality certification of call centres.

These standards developed by a core grou of major companies ensure that companies in call centre business perform up to a certain standard. He also approved a project for establishing a software technology park in Islamabad

Under the project to be executed by the Pakistan Software Export Board (PSEB) at the cost of Rs87 million, a suitable public building would be converted into a technology park by extending high-speed fibre connectivity, backup international connectivity via VSAT and providing modern facilities.