Digital transformation to bring economic prosperity

IT minister says all stakeholders will be taken on board for Digital Pakistan Policy 2021

ISLAMABAD:

Federal Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunication Syed Aminul Haque has said that the IT ministry has envisioned digital transformation as a source of empowering citizens and bringing prosperity to the vulnerable segments of society.

Speaking at the launch of development process for the Digital Pakistan Policy 2021, Haque said, “To capitalise on this enormous opportunity, the ministry will take all the stakeholders on board for Digital Pakistan Policy 2021, including the industry, international investors and policy arms of the government.”

Shedding light on the objective of the policy, he stated that the policy would serve as the foundation for the development of a holistic digital ecosystem with advanced concepts and components for rapid delivery of next-generation digital services, applications and content. “It will also serve as a supplier of data for value-added services and applications.”

Consultative sessions will be held with all the relevant stakeholders in Karachi and Islamabad and will include a broad cross-section of Pakistan’s information and communication technology (ICT) Industry.

“Pakistan is on the verge of digital revolution as we see progress happening in the country every day,” remarked Haque.

The Digital Pakistan Policy 2021 is being developed through an all-inclusive approach. It is a big leap forward as it is intended to remove the bottlenecks that prevent higher levels of ICT adoption in the country.

IT Secretary Shoaib Ahmad Siddiqui in his message said: “By engaging all the industry and academia partners, we are revising the Digital Pakistan Policy 2018 to re-evaluate and re-align ourselves for a right growth direction for IT.”

He added, “We are looking forward to valuable input from all the stakeholders to ensure an inclusive policy development process.”

Speaking on the occasion, Ministry of IT and Telecom Member IT Syed Junaid Imam said, “Digital Pakistan is for citizen empowerment and economic prosperity. It is not for the ICT sector only, but for all the citizens of Pakistan.”

He highlighted that the objectives of the policy were to provide access to information, improve skills, promote innovation and business, support IT and tech companies for export growth, facilitate financial inclusion and e-commerce.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 25^th, 2021.

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