Strategic Partnership Between Punjab Government And Microsoft

The Government of Punjab and Microsoft signed a Strategic Partnership Agreement at the Chief Minister‘s Secretariat at Friday 29th January at Lahore.

Javed Aslam, Chief Secretary Punjab and the head of Microsoft Company in Pakistan Kamal Ahmed signed the document under which Microsoft will extend all out cooperation for training and development of local IT industry in Punjab.

The CM Punjab, Mr. Shahbaz Sharif said that the Government has adopted a comprehensive strategy for promoting IT and the use of IT and its expansion will result in a positive change in health, education, law and order, agriculture, livestock and other sectors. Furthermore, Information Technology will also be used for evolving a system of accountability for eradication of corruption which is the most serious problem being faced by the country. The Punjab government will set up an IT Park in consultation with Microsoft to promote IT activities in the province. Under this agreement, Punjab Government will invest a sum of Rupees 3 Billion and resultantly Punjab government will earn a profit of 50 billion rupees in three years.

President Microsoft Company for Middle East and Africa Au Faramawy appreciated the vision of the Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif and said that information technology is playing an important role in the promotion of economic activities and generation of employment opportunities in Punjab.

Chairman Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB) – a graduate of MIT Dr Javed Ghani said that this agreement is a reflection of the vision of Chief Minister of “service to the people through IT” and that this will improve performance of government departments and result in provision of online service to citizens in the province of Punjab.