SUKKUR, July 26: The Sindh Information Technology Department has planned to set up 400 IT Awareness Centres in the province in three years, said the adviser to the Chief Minister on Environment, IT and Alternative Energy, Nauman Saigol, here on Wednesday.
He said while addressing a press conference at the Circuit House that the department had finalized the selection of five executive district officers (EDOs) to run district IT departments in Naushahro Feroze, Sanghar, Ghotki, Mirpurkhas and Nawabshah.
In the remaining 15 districts of the province EDOs (IT) would be appointed in a few days and each of them would be provided a budget of Rs0.8 million, he said.
He said that the government was encouraging the private sector to set up IT and business management education institutions and disclosed that a Malaysian multinational company had finalized an agreement with the IT department to invest $500 in the province.
Sindh governor had given a go-ahead to the department to start work on the project for which land would be allotted by City District Government Karachi, he said adding that the project would create more than 5,000 jobs.
The advisor said that Kaliya Group of Karachi was collaborating with the department in promoting IT Awareness Centres. Forty IT Awareness Centres would be set up in the first phase during next six months, while the department had plans to achieve the target of 400 centres in next three years, he said.
He said that about 50 contractual posts of project managers and IT personnel had been advertised for running different IT departments and projects.
The department would undertake the projects for the establishment of IT Resource and Rural Community Internet Centres, Intranet set-up for the government, IT Awareness Centres, Automation of Civil Hospital, Taxation System, Excise Duty and Taxes and the establishment of Data Centres, he said.
He said that the department had so far trained more than 15,000 government employees in IT and dismissed foul play in the selection of EDOs and other IT personnel.