Universal Service Fund Company’s 52nd Board of Directors meeting that happened on Thursday has discussed and approved an auction of the three broadband connections used for sustainable development projects.
What’s known so far is that the meeting was held yesterday at Ministry of Information Technology and Telecom, Islamabad and was chaired by USF Co Board Chairperson and the Minister of State for IT & Telecom Anusha Rahman Khan. Other board members included Rizwan Bashir Khan, Secretary IT, Mudassar Hussain, Member Telecom, Aamir Ibrahim, CEO Jazz, Azfar Manzoor, VP ISPS Kaukab Iqbal, Consumers Association, Chairman, and finally, the senior management of USF Co.
USF Board of Directors considered and approved the earlier mentioned auction of three broadband connections that are very important for sustainable development projects. The broadband connections in question are Mohmand Lot, Khyber Lot, and finally, Small Lot-II. The board then continued to discuss the establishment of computer labs within girl schools in the Islamabad Capital Territory’s rural areas and continued by approving phase I of this contract.
They then approved the phase II of the project called ICT for Girls, that concerns establishing computer laboratories, as well as training girls in computer skills in 119 ICT’s girl’s institutions.
The board then considered the agenda concerning the provision of Information and Communication Technology to medium, small, and micro companies of Pakistan. These enterprises can even be considered to be the backbone of the economy itself. They make almost 80% of Pakistan’s enterprises. The fact is that Pakistan has around 200 million people, 65 million of which are the workforce when these enterprises are included.
The board decided that bringing MSMEs online and providing access to digital platforms could allow the reaping of some real potential. This could continue to propel Pakistan’s economy, and help it become a country with higher-income. With this in mind, the USF management was directed to the task of carrying out market studies. This is to be done so that the landscape of different issues could be understood, and recommendations prepared.
