KARACHI, Oct 8: Governor, State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), Dr Ishrat Husain has said that the government is very keen to see that the Information Technology (IT) play its due role and supplement in national earnings through adoption of modern IT systems.

Speaking as chief guest at a seminar on admission in BSC (Hons) Software Development organized by the Karachi Institute of Information Technology (KIIT) at FTC auditorium here on Sunday, Dr Ishrat Husain said the government has recently set up Pakistan Science Foundation. The aim of the foundation is to encourage the good and recognised IT institutes, colleges and universities, through financial aid.

He said that he, being the Governor of SBP, had given great importance to the introduction of IT systems in the bank, besides encouraging other IT institutes throughout Pakistan.

In order to achieve required and speedy results, the SBP Governor said he had allocated Rs24 million for modernization of the SBP communication system. This gigantic task is being undertaken with the technical help of Hayndai company of South Korea.

That could later be converted into kiosk where public could pay their utility bills and other government challans.

Dr Ishrat Husain said to encourage the IT students, he had asked all commercial banks to allocate sufficient funds for loans as Qarz-e-Hasna to those students who need financial help to complete their IT education.

Commenting on the standard of education at KIIT, the SBP Governor said that as per his observations, the KIIT is one of the best IT institutes in Pakistan, where academic standard is no less than that of western IT universities.

He asked the students to utilize the facilities, available in KIIT and come out with a proud IT experts to serve the nation.

In his welcome address Chairman of KIIT Syed Mazhar Ali, who is also Chairman of IT Commission of Pakistan gave a detailed resume of the institute and said that he had put every thing and entire income of his life in the development of KIIT only to see that Pakistani IT experts could spread to the length and breadth of the world and show their talents in the field of IT.

Guest speaker Syed Hamza Mateen also spoke on the occasion.—APP