ISLAMABAD: Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunications, Anusha Rahman on Monday said telecom sector revenues are expected to reach US $ 4 billion till 2020.
“The government is working for development of telecom sector on priority basis and has declared year 2015 as year of IT. We are starting nine IT projects worth Rs. 20 billion in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) and Balochistan, she said.
The Minister was addressing a ceremony held here by Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) on Monday to confer awards with cash prizes to winners of Pakistan Mobile App Awards-2015.
She said the government was also establishing tele-centres in different areas of the country especially in rural areas.
Chairman PTA, Dr. Syed Ismail Shah, Member (Finance) PTA, Tariq Sultan and Member (Compliance & Enforcement), Abdul Samad were also present on the occasion. Representatives from the government, telecom industry, academia, media and parents of the winners also attended the ceremony.
Anusha Rahman said PTA has taken this initiative pro-actively which should be appreciated and followed by whole telecom industry, especially by the operators to take maximum advantage from the innovative development work of the young innovators.
Appreciating the winners of the competition, she assured of the effective utilization of these applications by related organization.
This initiative would go a long way in developing a strong relationship between the academia, industry and the relevant government organizations and would turn out to be exemplary for the rest of the sectors of our economy, she added.
Speaking on the occasion, Dr. Syed Ismail Shah said, “We at PTA believe in harmonized efforts for uplift of ICT industry of Pakistan as we look forward to carrying out significant projects in partnership with operators and solution providers in future as well.”
He said that Pakistan Mobile App Awards is to bridge gap between industry, academia and the regulator.
Chairman SUPARCO, Major Gen (R) Ahmed Bilal, Eng. Rukhsana Zuberi and others also spoken on this occasion.
The awards were given in two categories as in students’ category the 1st position was won by students of International Islamic University, Ms. Rabia Jabbar and Ms. Humna Shaheen for developing Pre-School Champs mobile application whereas the 2nd position award was won by student of Military College of Signals, Waqas Ajmal and his team for developing the Catch the BUS mobile application.
In professional category, 1st position was won by Hassan Baig and his team for developing the internet tutor app whereas 2nd position in professional category was won by Dr. Hammad M. Cheema and his team for developing the OMNES app in security domain.
During the ceremony PTA also appreciated the efforts of two talented Pakistani individuals Iram Tariq Bhatti and Shahryar Khan for their achievements at the international level and awards were given to them to recognize their achievements.
It may be highlighted that total 100 applications were received which were later scrutinized and evaluated by a Committee of IT and Software experts through a transparent procedure of marking.
All submissions to the competition were subject to pre-defined criteria including uniqueness, value to public, functionalities, sustainability and quality of the mobile application under agriculture, entertainment, kids, security, community and business categories.
With over 100 entries received, Pakistan Mobile App Awards competition proven to be well acknowledged, reflecting a lively evolution of innovation in Pakistan duly supported after introduction of 3G and 4G services in the country.
Later, Anusha Rahman presented awards to winners of the competition.
