Panaji, May 26 (IANS): Stating that Goa might face a challenge of 'skilled manpower', state Information Technology Minister Rohan Khaunte on Thursday stressed on the need to connect with the IT areas, and inviting companies to invest for revenue and employment generation.

"This can't be done by the government alone, but we need academia, the IT industry and others concerned to come together and share their thoughts on it," Khaunte said.

"We (govt) can be a facilitator. We need to know why co-working space is less. We need to discuss all these issues on one common platform," Khaunte said.

He said that on one hand, there is a need for skilled manpower and on other hand, there are challenges whether we have skilled manpower or not, if the industries wish to start business in Goa.

"Because, the manpower is already engaged in the existing companies," he said.

"So how do we handle this? While providing infrastructure, we need to look at what are our priorities. We need to bring new concepts," Khaunte said.

He added that understanding all these facts, the government will have interaction with academia and other stakeholders.

"This is vital for skilling perspective, employment perspective and connectivity to infrastructure," he said.

He said that the government will revive 'start up' policy and IT policy for the disbursement of financial grants and give pace to the certification process.