ISLAMABAD, July 22: The Ministry of Information Technology on Thursday formed a committee with directions to roll out a scheme for provision of computers at affordable rates to the people.
The committee was formed on the directives of Minister for Information Technology Awais Ahmad Khan Leghari after a meeting with John Davies, vice-president and general manager solutions group at an international computer hardware company.
The committee would prepare recommendations in collaboration with the company for the promotion of computer literacy in Pakistan.
Under the scheme, Pakistan Telecommunication Company (PTCL) will provide facility to enable its subscribers to buy a computer and repay the instalment through monthly phone bills.
The minister told the delegation that the scheme would initially be launched for government servants and employees of affiliated corporations while at a subsequent stage university and college students would also be incorporated in the scheme.
"We believe this single step will dramatically increase the penetration of PC ownership within the country besides generating tremendous growth in computer literacy," the minister said, adding that the PTCL would also provide internet connectivity to users of this scheme to access internet at affordable rates.
Earlier, John Davies shared experiences of his company with the minister in promoting widespread computer literacy and PC ownership in 18 countries around the globe and said different models had been adopted in these countries for increasing the ownership of PCs.
Mr Davies told Awais Leghari that his company was committed to working with the Ministry of Information Technology to increase penetration of personal computers in the country.
"We are also keen to assist Pakistan in its efforts to improve the quality of hardware being assembled locally," he said.
He informed the minister that Pakistan was one of the few countries in the world where over 80 per cent of personal computers were assembled locally, with only 20 per cent being imported fully assembled.
"This means that there is an immense scope for improving the quality of the assembly processes, to ensure that these local assemblers are able to produce consistently high quality products," he said. Mr Leghari, however, assured Mr Davies that his ministry was willing to work with his company to explore ways to enhance mutual cooperation.
The ministry is taking necessary steps to promote the local hardware industry which is likely to grow at a much faster rate in the coming months because of the incentives offered by the government.
He said the sale of computers was also set to grow tremendously through government initiatives such as setting up of IT labs in 1,100 schools which would increase the usage of computers manifold.
The minister also invited the computer hardware company to look at the possibility of setting up a testing facility/service for software products being produced locally.