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Information & Information Technology Department
Mission Statement Promoting Information Technology (IT) as a viable commercial industry, with special emphasis on the area of human capital development, e-government, e-commerce and to highlight the potential for capital investments and business development opportunities in the province
Functions
Development Projects Following the National IT Policy and Action Plan, Balochistan Government is coordinating with the Ministry of IT & Telecommunication for identification and formulation of large scale IT projects. Balochistan IT department is mainly focusing on the development of human resource required for the realization e-government and the needed infrastructure with automation of business processes. Keeping in focus the department’s mission, the following development projects in IT sector have been initiated: 1. “Balochistan University of Information Technology and Management Sciences (BUITMS)”, working since October, 2002, is a milestone towards a digital future. This university, established at Quetta with an initial cost of Rs. 59 million, is enriching more than 700 students in Ph.D., Masters, and Bachelor degree courses of various disciplines. The university will provide skilled human resource to both private and public sectors. 2. The Present is being fashioned by Information Technology (IT) and the Future will be entirely dependent on IT. From everyday life to high profile jobs, IT will be the soul. Realizing the role that IT is playing and will be playing, the Government of Balochistan has planned another catalyst to our country’s needs namely Balochistan Institute of Information Technology & Management Sciences. The institute being established at Loralai will cost more than 26 million rupees. 3. Pakistan Computer Bureau is initiating a mass scale government employees’ training program with the collaboration of IT department, Balochistan and the private sector. The developed nations are already reaping the fruits of e-government while we have to take such significant steps that facilitate developing e-government environment. In this connection establishment of an IT training center for government employees is a prerequisite for materializing the plan of e-government. The Balochistan government has contributed a project of ‘Provincial Government IT Training Center’ at Quetta to keep abreast the government employees of IT advancement. 4. Equipping Polytechnic Institutes with computer labs is yet another project that will enable the students in the polytechnics to be proficient in the use of computers and digitally move towards perfection in their respective professions. The polytechnic work force with an additional tool of IT will give our industry a better competitive ability at national and international levels. 5. Acquiring knowledge whether scientific or religious was never as easy as it is now and that too is just because of the wonders of IT. The department is in the process of finalizing a project for the provision of IT education in Deeni Madaris (religious schools) of Balochistan. The project will be a joint venture of Federal and Provincial governments. The project envisions creation of environment, having required physical and human resources, conducive to rapid IT development in Deeni Madaris. This will be a step forward in providing Madaris’ students a chance to avail facility of technical education as a means of earning their livelihood. This project will eliminate the digital divide between the developed and underdeveloped masses of the province. 6. Balochistan IT Department will establish two new IT institutes to remove the deficiency of human resource in IT sector. These IT institutes will be established at Quetta and Surab. 7. A high tech Data Centre for all the departments will be established. This plan is under formulation and soon will be put forward for technical scrutiny. The Data Centre will be the hub for communications and data management requirements of the provincial government departments. This plan is focused on providing fast connectivity to exchange information between all the departments and local governments. Internet services will be provided to public sector agencies for better and low cost communication. Inter district and inter department intranet will be developed for efficient coordination and productivity. 8. IT department is taking steps to create E-government environment in Balochistan. Presently, non-existence of any infrastructure and shortage of qualified human resource limit pace of e-government development. IT department with the assistance of Federal Ministry of IT & Telecom is working on a plan to strengthen the IT department of Balochistan. These efforts will empower it to implement the Pakistan IT Action Plan. This project will provide a strong technical assistance, infrastructure, logistics support to the department for conceiving, designing, planning and implementing e-government projects. 9. The Provincial and Federal governments are establishing IT labs in 95 Secondary Schools and Colleges of Balochistan. This project will increase computer literacy and contribute in human resource development in the province at school level. 10. The main goal of the e-government is to provide citizen centric services with smooth and hassle free interaction with the government. A joint venture with the Government of Pakistan is under way for the development of Balochistan Government’s Web Portal. This portal will provide a platform to the citizens to avail various services offered by Government departments online. 11. Local Government Ordinance 2000 devolves the IT department to district level for the development and promotion of IT at district level. IT department is establishing District IT Offices in 8 districts of Balochistan, where as the approval for other 18 districts is under process. Soon all District IT offices will be opened for extending the services to the grass root level. These offices will be working for the development and promotion of IT at district level line departments. 12. IT department in collaboration with Federal government is finalizing the plan for automation of Balochistan Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education, which provides service to about 150,000 students annually. All student related business processes will be automated for error free and timely result announcement on web. 13. On-line testing is becoming the mode of examinations worldwide. Balochistan Public Service Commission (BPSC) is going to be computerized this year. The project will enable the BPSC to process application form in brief span of time and conduct on-line examination expeditiously. The project will use web services for instant advertisements, result announcements and dissemination of related information. 14. Conventional ways of data production and distribution are becoming obsolete. Today’s data users demand data in e-form, which is amenable to further statistical treatment. Statistics give decision making a pragmatic approach. The Provincial Bureau of Statistics, Balochistan is being computerized to meet the requirement of the data users and make easy the access to the data produced. From a trivial task to sophisticated artistry, Information Technology is working as a catalyst to all. E-government is one of the wonders of IT. Realization of this dream in our country needs a lot of capital and human resources. Since we run short of both, there is need for conscientious planning on the part of Information Technology department, Balochistan. The department is contributing to facilitate the provincial government establish a state of the art IT Infrastructure that provides the basic platform needed for the e-government realization. Private Sector The promising need of IT has attracted private sector to promote and benefit from IT. Private IT institutes, internet service providers (ISPs) and software development companies, mostly stationed at Quetta, are engaged in IT promotion and business. Most of the prominent Universities, operating in other parts of the country, have also established their campuses in Quetta. Different businesses are switching from manual to automated office workings. The software development environment is emerging and opening up new job opportunities for the IT professionals. Balochistan, though thinly populated, offers substantial investment opportunities in hardware sales and services in various parts of the province. |
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