Govt Aimed to Bridge Rural-Urban Digital Divide: IT Minister

Federal Minister for IT and Telecommunication, Syed Amin Ul Haque, said the government aimed to bridge the rural-urban digital divide with a focus on youth empowerment and gender equality. Pakistan witnessed landmark achievements in the ICT sector in recent years due to the effective policies of the government.

While addressing the Digital Cooperation Organization’s (DCO) virtual meeting, the minister said,

“Government of Pakistan has brought many reforms for creating a better environment for tech-based businesses in the country.

The DCO held a forum alongside the UN General Assembly, inviting the ministers from all seven member countries. The aim of the event was to discuss the role of the DCO in building an inclusive digital age.

Govt Aimed to Bridge Rural-Urban Digital Divide: IT Minister

Ministers from all member countries i.e., Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Nigeria, Oman, and Saudi Arabia including Pakistan attended the meeting. Whereas, Maria-Francesca Spatolisano, Assistant Secretary-General for Policy Coordination and Inter-Agency Affairs of UN also joined the session.

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The rise of the digital economy, accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic, transformed the world. He further added,

“Countries face new challenges as the global scale of the digital economy and the power of private sector actors grows.

“Being a founding member of DCO, the Government of Pakistan fully endorses that DCO is actively pursuing its vision of achieving social prosperity and growth of the digital economy by unifying efforts to advance the digital transformation agenda and promote common interests of the member states.”

He mentioned Pakistan had been named one of the fastest-growing economies in Asia in Mckinsey & Co’s latest report on the Pakistani ecosystem.

“Government of Pakistan strongly believes in mass adoption of emerging digital technologies and innovative applications to enable cross-sector socio-economic development and transformation of economic activities, governance models, social interaction, and achievement of sustainable development goals,” Haque said.

During the fiscal year 2020-21, Pakistan’s IT exports increased 47.4 per cent and crossed the $2 billion mark for the first time in the country’s history.

The World Economic Forum (WEF) ranked Pakistan among the best countries in terms of the affordability of ICT services. According to International Labour Organization (ILO), Pakistan is the 2nd largest supplier of online labour in software development and technology. Pakistan substantially improved its position in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business report. The IT minister said the government had a vision of accelerated digitisation and transformation of Pakistan into a knowledge-based economy.

“A strategic plan and roadmap for 5G technology in Pakistan are also being formulated keeping in view the aspects of Spectrum Management, Infrastructure Development, Review of Telecom Regulations and 5G applications/use cases”, he added.

He further said the DCO was an ideal platform for Pakistan and other countries. They learn from each other by working together and collaborating at the regional level.

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Source: The News