The India-Syria Centre of Excellence for Information Technology, which would impart IT training to Syrians in public and private sectors, has been inaugurated in Damascus.

The Centre is an India-Syrian Joint Collaboration project and has been established in the framework of a MoU signed between the Syrian Ministry of Communications and Technology and the government of India.

The decision to establish such a centre was taken during the state visit of Syrian President Bashar Al Assad to India in June 2008. Syria has provided infrastructure for the centre.

"The Centre would impart training in the field of Information and Technology to Syrians from both public and private sectors. Indian side has provided hardware, software, courseware and specialised trainers for the centre," a statement from the Indian embassy in Damascus said today.

It said the centre was inaugurated by Syrian Prime Minister Mohammad Naji Otri in the presence of Syrian Minister of Communications and Technology Imad Sabouni and Indian Ambassador to Syria V P Haran on Wednesday.

Director of India-Syria Centre of Excellence for Information Technology Nabil Hamed was also present. The centre has three classrooms/labs and can train 90 students at a time. About 500-600 students can be trained at the centre per year, the statement said.

Courses on information security, software engineering and information management and advanced data centre operations will be taught in the centre in the beginning.

The Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), an autonomous scientific society under the Ministry of Communications & Information Technology, Government of India is offering assistance to the Syrian side in execution of the project.