\\\'UISCs to be made outsourcing centres\\\'

All the 4,516 Union Information Service Centres (UISCs) will be turned into outsourcing centres to create opportunities for rural people to earn foreign currency, ICT Secretary Md Nazrul Islam Khan said Saturday, reports BSS.
"Rural people, particularly youths, can get outsourcing training from the UISCs to earn handsome amount of money sitting at their homes and contribute to boosting national economy," he told a workshop on "Prospects and challenges of UISCs" in the conference room of ICT Division here.
The workshop was held under the Empowering Rural Communities-Reaching the Unreached: Union Information and Service Centre (UISC) Project.
SAARC Development Fund is implementing the UISC project at a cost of Tk 94.3 million at 200 UISCs in remote areas of the country.
Director of Enabling Environment of a2i programme of the Prime Minister's office Dr Md Abdul Mannan, field level officials and IT professionals, among others, attended the workshop with UISC project director Susanta Kumar Saha in the chair.
The ICT secretary said a male and a female entrepreneur are jointly running a UISC which is now providing outsourcing training under ICT Ministry's Learning and Earning Project. First, the training recipients will be freelancers and then they will be given entrepreneurship training, he added.
He said the government will create one lakh freelancers across the country by this year through the ongoing Learning and Earning Programme aiming to provide employment opportunities for young people.
"We have already created 20,000 freelancers and the programme is going to create another 80,000 freelancers by this year," he added.
The government is establishing hi-tech IT parks at all divisional levels to expand ICT across the country, Nazrul Islam Khan said adding, "We have a plan to set up hi-tech parks at district levels to reach benefit of ICT to rural people.
"We are working to create skilled workforce with IT knowledge to ensure better access to job markets at national and international levels, which will ultimately foster economic progress in the country," he added.
The government is implementing "Learning and Earning Training Programme" to create opportunities for earning foreign currency through online outsourcing, Khan said, adding freelancing is an extremely prospective sector worldwide and now it is getting popularity in the country.