Pakistan to play its role to make region centre of IT experts: Anisa
By Bushra Rafique

ISLAMABAD—Minister of State for Education Anisa Zeb Tahirkheli Monday said Pakistan will play its important role to make the whole region of Asia a centre of experts in the field of Information Technology.
She was addressing the opening ceremony of Information Technology Programme for ASEAN countries on Multimedia Training and Resources Development. The ceremony was held under the auspices of the National Institute of Science and Technical Education (NISTE).
The training programme has been organised by the NISTE in collaboration with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, ASEAN Secretariat, Jakarka. A total of 20 professionals of ten ASEAN member countries are participating in the programme.
The Minister of State said President Pervez Musharraf was keen to make all out efforts to find out further areas to boost mutual cooperation among the ASEAN member countries.
She said multi-media tools were now considered essential to enhance capacity and induce more expertise among IT professionals.
Anisa Zeb said the ASEAN members countries needed to further enhance cooperation especially in the field of science andtechnology to keep pace with the fast growing technology all over the world.
She said there was also a need to share expertise and experience which was the only way to equip emerging professionals with latest techniques in multi-media dimensions. The Minister of State said multi-media resources were influencing every sphere of life as they helped get maximum output in diversified fields.
Anisa Zeb said such programmes and courses would also be held in future to strengthen enhanced cooperation among the ASEAN member countries.
She hoped the participants of programme would get a glimpse of Pakistani culture and heritage attending a number of cultural events which were being held in the capital city.
DG NISTE Syed Shahid Mukhtar Shah said from the early 90s , multi-media has been at the crossroads of five major industries including computing, telecommunications, publishing, consumer audio and video electronics and broadcasting industry. Mukhtar Shah said more than 140 text books for technical education and 37 for secondary school technical education have been developed besides providing training to thousands of in-service teachers at the national level. He said researchers have been continuously striving to devisenew methods to improve learning among the students utilizing all types of emerging technologies.
Mukhtar Shah said IT technology advancement through out the world have influenced the changes taking place in educational processes and industry.
The DG NISTE said developing countries were still to harness the full potential of world wide web and multi-media technologies with respect to issues related to the educational and social sectors. He said media sources that could be used to contribute components to the multi-media included video disk, CDROM, videotapes, scanners, CDs, camcoders, digital cameras etc.
Ambassadors of Phillipines Jaine J. Yambao said Pakistan hasa fast growing economy and use of multi-media would play a pivotal role in further strengthening its economic situation.
He said Pakistan has been playing an important role in promoting cooperation and develop close ties among the ASEAN members countries.
Chairman, Federal Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education, Commodore (Retd) S. Shamshad, DG Foreign Affairs M. Waheedul Hassan and ambassadors of Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia and Myanmar were also present on the occasion.