Daily Times

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Minister for Science and Information Technology Atif Khan on Tuesday said that 25,000 youth including men and women from across the province would be imparted training in advanced digital skills and expertise for their inclusion in the digital economy.

Addressing a graduation ceremony of the 14 women startups under Gender Exclusive Space (Durshall) here in a local hotel, he said that the project would cost Rs3 billion. Besides, provincial ministers, members of KP Assembly, academicians, staff of KP BoIT, representatives of JS Bank and others attended the meeting.

The provincial minister said for the promotion of information technology (IT) sector, three special technology zones would be completed in the province soon. For which 2,000 kanal land in Mardan, 70 kanal in Haripur and 40 kanal in Peshawar had already been identified.

He said that the internet connectivity problem in the province would be resolved to promote tourism and digital coordination. On this occasion, a memorandum of understanding was also signed between KP Board of Information Technology (BoIT) and JS Bank to extend financial support to leading women startups, women graduates and freelancers.

The purpose of this strategic partnership is to bring freelancers and leading women startups in the province into the mainstream economy. Under the arrangement both institutes will organise financial literacy related training and provide opportunities to skilled persons regarding digital skills by the experts of KP IT Board.

The minister said under the Seed Fund, 30 leading women startups would be given $5,000 to 15,000 for the capacity building and expansion of startups to help generate more income.