PESHAWAR: Provincial Senior Minister for Health and Information Technology Shahram Khan Tarakai has said that promotion of IT and its use for knowledge-based economy is priority of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government.

Speaking at the inaugural session of the two-day International Information Technology Conference titled ‘Digital Youth Summit 2014’ here on Wednesday, Mr Tarakai said that the government was taking result-oriented steps to promote the use of IT and the ‘Digital Youth Summit’ was a step in that direction. He said that the provincial government was focusing on the use of IT for ensuring good governance, efficient utilisation of resources and providing employment opportunities to the youth of the province.

Provincial Minister for Education Mohammad Atif Khan was the chief guest at the inaugural session, says a handout. Others who attended the opening session included Khyber Pakhtunkhwa IT Board (KPITB) managing director Eng. Siddiqullah, representatives of the World Bank, vice-chancellors of various universities, over 300 delegates and IT experts from various countries, representatives of private sector and IT companies and students.

Speaking at the inaugural session, the education minister termed the holding of the conference a great achievement of the provincial government and said that the conference would provide opportunities of online business and jobs to the youth, specially the IT students.

He said that it would herald a revolution in the IT sector in the province.

Mr Siddiqullah informed the participants that the aim of the conference was to bring together the next generation of digital innovators in Pakistan.

He said that it provided a platform for public to update themselves with information regarding online activities, innovation and startups.

He said that the present conference and an expo would feature three major themes including, innovation, freelancing and startup. The KPITB has organised the conference in collaboration with the World Bank and a private company.

Published in Dawn, May 22nd, 2014