President Dr Arif Alvi on Wednesday said Pakistan’s progress was linked with extensive digitalization of all sectors, particularly education and health, and stressed fast decision-making in this regard to match the global advancements in Information Technology (IT) sector.
“Pakistan needs a paradigm shift in IT sector with an ability to process and analyze more data and devising the policies as per contemporary needs,” the President said, in his address here at the National Broadband Network Forum.
The forum themed ‘Broadband for all’ was jointly organized by Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) and Huawei Technologies Pakistan, which brought together local and foreign stakeholders for an insight into transformative technologies and viable solutions to challenges.
President Alvi said Pakistan was heading in the right direction to improve its digital footprint and ensure access of its citizens to the ‘information highway’ and communication services.
However, he said, had the decision on expanding broadband infrastructure taken a decade earlier, the country would have witnessed a revolution in the IT sector.
“The technology is running ahead of us and we need to take hold of it by adopting a proactive and marketable approach,” he said, adding that China was an inspiring model in making strides in the technology sector.
He said digitalization of financial and banking systems would not only improve the response time, but also ensure transparency in transactions.
The president said coronavirus pandemic had increased manifold the importance of access to broadband services, particularly in areas of education and health.
He said online learning was still the cheapest source of knowledge, adding that he was in touch with universities to encourage distant education along with the traditional brick-n-mortar setups to increase the number of graduates.
He expressed satisfaction that fifty percent of the country’s population had access to cellular services.
