image source: infodev.org
University of Engineering and Technology(UET), Lahore has been selected as the place to set up a high tech mobile phone application lab with the help of Finish Government and Nokia.
According to details, InfoDev – a global partnership program in the World Bank that is funded by various countries including Finland, Germany, Japan, Korea and many others – has selected Pakistan among SAARC countries as the most suitable and innovative place for setting up mobile application development and research lab at UET Lahore.
The fund that will provide some USD 380,000 for a two year project – mLab South Asia, will make UET Lahore, Indus Valley Schools of Arts and Architect and National College of Arts to work in combination as implementation partners.
An official of UET Lahore told that this is a mega achievement for us as for getting this two year contract we were competing so many countries which are already far ahead of us in technology and that includes India as well which also happens to be one of the donors in this fund. The project will help developers and entrepreneurs to develop local content for mobile phones and applications in Pakistan. It will also allow Pakistan to increase its share in software export”.
The project is being monitored through Pakistan Software Export Board (PSEB) and so far first year’s installment of USD 240,000 has been released to the board by the World Bank.
InfoDev planned to launch 5 research labs across the world including the one in Pakistan. The first mLab project was opened in Kenya in June 2011 supporting East Africa region. Other destinations for mLab project are Armenia and Vietnam.
