Govt to Establish 10,000 E-Rozgar Centres

Staff Report

The caretaker minister for IT and Telecom here on Wednesday announced the official policy to establish around 10,000 e-job centres across the country to facilitate freelancers, as most of them do not have a proper workplace.

“Around 1.5 million freelancers are working regularly in Pakistan,” Dr Omar Saif said in a statement issued at X (Twitter) and added that the convenience of freelancers was essential for them to improve their work performance and efficiency.

“If we can facilitate one million freelancers, their earnings will be enhanced to around $10 billion annually,” he said. Starlink To Launch Satellite Communication Service in Pakistan

He added that with the other measures already taken including permission to retain up to 50 per cent of their export earnings and easy mode of receiving their payments the freelance activities are expected to grow in the country.

The Ministry of IT and Telecom has identified that the majority of the freelancers belong to smaller cities and towns while the female IT experts are mostly from the remote areas of the country where they do not have job opportunities in the relevant field.

While acknowledging that most freelancers do not have the required facilities including a work environment and fast internet in their homes, Dr Umar Saif said that under the new policy the e-rozgar centre will be equipped with all necessary facilities and each of them will have the capacity of 100 people to work.

Under the scheme, the owners of buildings who want to get their properties converted to e-rozgar centres and can accommodate 100 people will be granted interest-free loans to convert their real estate into workplaces.

While talking to the media recently the caretaker minister added that the most important aspect of e-rozgar centres will be the networking and connectivity among the freelancers and the overall atmosphere will support them to go for high-end projects etc.

Dr Saif also stressed the performance of the caretaker government that they have taken 13 major steps to boost the IT and telecom sector in four months.