ISLAMABAD - Inaugural ceremony of launching of a special programme for the promotion of Information Communication Technologies (ICT) sector of Pakistan held here at Pakistan Telecommunication Authoritys (PTA) headquarters on Tuesday. Addressing the inaugural ceremony, Sardar M Latif Khan Khosa Advisor to the Prime Minister on IT, said that the Government was committed to enhance the quality of manpower in ICT sector. He said that we would continue to provide the necessary support to industry and the academia. Following the global scenario of technological development and application promotions, ICT would play even more important role in human society to realize that, he said.we need the efforts and close cooperation from all of us including operators, equipment manufacturers, content providers and academia. He appreciated the efforts of Pakistan Telecommunication Authority towards proliferation of ICT sector of the country. He said that the massive growth of telecommunication services was an eye-opener and it was firmly believed that still there was room for expansion and growth. Talking on the occasion Chairman PTA said that Pakistan had emerged as one of the leading markets in telecommunications especially in the voice segment. In broadband sector, by December 2008, we had approximately 250,000 broadband subscribers and within a span of one year, by December 2009 the figure has just crossed 600,000 showing a massive annual growth rate of more than 200 percent. However, at the same time, we still were lagging behind in overall broadband penetration. 600,000 subscribers reflect a penetration level of only 0.36 percent. This was where we required a mutual collaboration for development of local applications and content to promote usage of broadband in all spheres of life, he added. Sardar Muhammad Latif Khan Khosa formally inaugurated the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority programme while Parliamentary Secretary Interior, Capt (Retd) Rai Ghulam Mujtaba Kharal, Secretary Cabinet Division, Abdul Rauf Chaudhry, Secretary IT & Telecom, Naguibullah Malik, Chairman Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, Dr Mohammed Yaseen, Member (Finance) PTA, Syed Nasrul Karim Ghaznavi, Member (Technical) PTA, Dr Khawar Siddique Khokhar and representatives of IT & telecom industry were also present on the occasion.