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Government of Syrian Arab Republic and COMSATS-COMSTECH Signed an Agreement to Establish an Information Technology Centre at Damascus, Syria An agreement on establishment of COMSATS-COMSTECH-Syrian Information Technology Centre (CCSITC) at Damascus, Syria was signed at Damascus on September 26, 2000. A 3-member delegation from COMSATS & COMSTECH visited Syria to solemonize the signing ceremony. The international information technology center under the said agreement would function in collaboration with COMSATS, COMSTECH and Ministry of Higher Education, Government of Syrian Arab Republic, who would look after the assignments as demarcated under the agreement. The center would be a landmark in strengthening technological capacities of Syria in a rapidly growing IT world. The center aims at quality training in the field of IT: software, Internet applications, electronic commerce and information technology applications. The Government of Syria would be responsible for providing premises for the center alongwith suitable furnishing and equipping it with all utility services including telephone, Internet and fax. The assignment of COMSATS and COMSTECH would comprise equipment with state-of-the-art computer systems and machinery and these shall be updated and upgraded in accordance with resource availability to keep up with the most recent technological developments as well as developing profession courses and training the scientific knowledge seekers. COMSATS would also undertake: -
COMSATS is an international inter-governmental organization with its Headquarters at Islamabad, Pakistan. It was established in 1994, as the high level forum in the developing world, representing joint political commitment of the heads of states or governments in the South. The main objective was to sue the S&T for the socio-economic uplift of the developing countries. COMSATS resolved to achieve this mission through strengthening collaboration and exchange of resources among the member states. The idea was to put forth an organized effort towards utilizing the South's own resources for its development needs. This mission of COMSATS was pursued vigorously and has achieved its membership from 10 in 1994 to 21 in 2000, Sudan and Syria joining very recently. The establishment of Information Technology Centre at Damascus has been the outcome of the keen interest of COMSTECH-an OIC Committee on S&T in promoting IT and information database in common member states. First such information centre was set up in Karachi, the second has now been established in Damascus while the third one is upcoming soon in Sudan. The Information Technology Centre would be managed by a Management Board headed by the Minister for Higher Education, Government of Syria and would comprise representatives of COMSATS and COMSTECH, Pakistan ambassador in Syria as well as the centre of excellence in Syria. The Management would look after supervision of the activities of centre, draw up detailed work plans and evaluation of the development plans to ensure progress evaluations of the works undertake. The Management would also take care of the budgetary considerations in the activities of the centre and would meet at least once in a year in coordination with COMSATS and the Ministry of Higher Education, Government of Syria. In 1999, COMSATS and COMSTECH approached the Syrian Government with a proposal to set up an IT centre in Damascus. The proposal received positive response and on the invitation of the Ministry of Higher Education, Syria a delegation comprising of representatives of COMSATS and COMSTECH visited Damascus during August 1999. The meeting at the Ministry of Higher Education, Syria discussed the proposal in detail and agreed in principle for establishing an IT centre at Damascus and to develop a draft agreement. It was decided that the IT Centre would be supported by the three parties including COMSATS, COMSTECH and Syrian Government and management of the Centre would be shared equally among all parties. Syrian Government consented to provide the furnished building while COMSATS and COMSTECH would be responsible for equipping the centre with state of art computer systems and machinery, to train the staff and to provide course material, necessary software/hardware along with other infrastructure requirements. Areas of operation of the IT centre would be training in software, hardware and networking, software development and research, internet applications and electronic commerce. It is hoped that the Centre would be operational on 1st January 2000. The centre is being established as part of the cooperation agreement between Commission on Science and Technology for Sustainable Development in the South (COMSATS) and OIC Standing Committee on Science and Technology (COMSTECH), which aims at integrating efforts for science and technology development in the common member countries. Information Technology has been set as the priority area in this agreement and it was agreed that Information Technology Centres would be established in common member countries with the objective of rendering quality IT training and other services in the allied areas like Internet, software development, and research. This project would contribute towards the human resources development in the south through promoting technical education and would enable the developing countries like Syria to respond to the opportunities that exist and keep multiplying in the highly dynamic world of IT. The success of the COMSATS Institute of Information Technology in Pakistan has inspired the establishment of similar IT centres in other developing countries. Over the years, COMSATS has developed superior capabilities in the area of information technology and would play an important role in the establishment and Human Resource Development through centre in Damascus. |
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