PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has signed agreements with various institutions to initiate five information technology projects for digital transformation in the province.

According to a statement, the projects would be completed at a total cost of Rs6 billion. The agreements were signed by science and technology and information technology department for establishment of citizen facilitation centres, nanodegree programme for imparting digital skills to youth, paperless government programme, setting up digital city in Haripur and science and technology museum in Mardan.

The contract signing ceremony was held here on Wednesday. Chief Minister Mahmood Khan was chief guest on the occasion while provincial ministers Mohammad Atif Khan, Shahram Khan Tarakai, Taimur Saleem Jhagra, Anwar Zeb, Akbar Ayub and Mohibullah; Chief Secretary Dr Shehzad Bangash, Additional Chief Secretary Shahab Ali Shah, representatives of partner organisations and officials of the relevant departments attended the ceremony.

An agreement was signed with National Database and Registration Authority to set up citizen facilitation centres in seven divisional headquarters of the province. The project will be extended to other districts in the next phase. It will cost Rs2.1 billion.

The second agreement was signed with Udacity, a renowned organisation, to impart digital skills to youth. Under the project, nano-degrees would be awarded to 400 youth of the province. A digital economy and skills centre would be established in Mardan for the purpose.

Another agreement was signed with Netsol Technologies to implement paperless government programme. Under the project, 170 processes of all 32 administrative departments have been identified for digitisation.

Similarly, an agreement was signed with National Logistic Cell for establishing Pakistan Digital City as the first special technology zone of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The digital city would be established in Haripur that would create more than 20,000 jobs.

Another agreement was signed with GSK to establish science and technology museum in Mardan. The museum would be established at an estimated cost of Rs3 billion. It will function to promote interest in scientific learning and will be engaged in the creative process to nurture the next generation of scientists in the province. This would also prove to be a milestone towards knowledge-based economy in the province.

Addressing the ceremony, the chief minister said that the provincial government had taken many initiatives including e-summary system pertaining to e-governance focusing extensively on using information technology for the efficient delivery of services.

He said that provincial government was going all out to facilitate the citizens and set a standardised foundation for transparency, efficiency and corruption-free quality services delivery.

The chief minister said that citizens facilitation centres, digital city and other initiatives envisioned the digital transformation to improve standard of life of people.

Published in Dawn, June 30th, 2022