The Ministry of Communications is undertaking a number of projects to generate high paying jobs in the ICT industry within four years. The effort forms part of the commitment of the ministry to work in conjunction with the Ghana Association of Software and Information Technology Service Companies (GASSCOM) to create 10,000 high paying jobs in the ICT industry. Mr Haruna Iddrisu, Minister of Communications, who announced this at a workshop organised by GASSCOM in Accra said the ministry was pursuing the development of business process outsourcing in the ICT industry as part of the initiative towards the realisation of creating more jobs. The workshop was intended to expose the potentials of information technology in the country. Mr Haruna said Ghana had both the human and natural resources to become a major outsourcing destination in Africa. He added that another project being pursued was the establishment of the Directorate of the IT-Enabled Services at the Ministry of Communications, which was necessary to provide the essential assistance to the ICT industry and nurture it into a well-resourced and active player in the economy. Mr Haruna said the national communication backbone transmission network would also be linked up with those of neighbouring countries by the end of the year. To that end, the minister said the Ministry of Communications and technical teams from Ghana, Cote d'Ivoire, Togo, Burkina Faso, Benin and Niger would be attending a conference in Accra in June to assess progress made by respective countries towards the realisation of the link-up project. To overcome the problem of high real estate-charges for ICT businesses, the minister said the government was pursuing the programme to establish technology parks with sufficient infrastructure to assist ICT businesses seeking to do business in the country. Mr Haruna said every effort was being made to ensure that the broadband project was rapidly deployed throughout the country for Internet services, by extending the optic fibre to cover all the district capitals. He said sufficient arrangements had been made to secure a more favourable pricing for bandwidth that would particularly address the concerns of the outsourcing industry in the country. Mr Kofi Bentil, a representative of GASSCOM said the public and civil service in the country stood the chance of offering the improved services as well as reduced cost for undertaking business in the country, through the outsourcing of jobs from abroad. Mr Bentil said in the long run the country could attract jobs from outside to help improve the economy by providing high paying jobs. Source: Daily Graphic