Talking to Business Recorder, an official of the Ministry of Information Technology said that there were around 23 IT companies, housed at ETC building, adjacent to the Marriott Hotel, and after the suicide attack these were relocated at various locations in the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad.
The bomb blast also affected the ETC building, claiming at least 40 lives. "The building was the hub of IT industry in Islamabad with around 23 prominent ICT companies and various other multinationals", the official said. "Most of the companies in the building were allied offices of international firms which have proper business continuity plans in place as a part of their strategic business plans," he added.
The official said that although the soft structure of building was smashed with interrupted power but the equipment, data, record and furniture other than glass structure of all companies was reported safe and intact. This temporarily paralysed the operations of the tenant companies in the building.
The building was initially sealed but after the intervention of Federal Secretary of Information Technology and MD of Pakistan Software Export Board (PSEB), physical access was allowed to the tenant companies on emergency basis to remove their critical assets. Companies collected their critical equipment, furniture and records to restore their operations from alternate locations / facilities on war footing.
Many companies such as iKonami, Ovex Technologies, Cogilent Solutions, Jin Technologies, LMKR, PiSigma etc restarted their operations from alternative sites in Islamabad and Rawalpindi.
To facilitate those affected, vigorous efforts were made by the Government to identify and arrange alternative facilities in the twin cities for both IT Companies and Call Centres on urgent basis to ensure continuation of business. Both public and private sectors actively worked together to compensate the temporary losses suffered by the industry.
Source:BusinessRecorder
No comments:
Post a Comment