Zubair Qureshi
Pakistan has the potential to replicate Kazakhstan’s ‘Digital Bridge’ model to attract investments for the rapid growth in Information Technology (IT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) sectors and the country’s exports of IT and AI products can thus increase manifold.
These views were expressed by Devcom-Pakistan Executive Director Munir Ahmed who is one of the participants of the recently-held ‘Digital Bridge 2023’ forum in Astana.
Kazakhstan, he said, has achieved a milestone by digitizing the country as 60 per cent coverage of the country (20 main cities) with 5G service will be done by 2025.
Moreover, by 2027, 6,300 villages of the country where 45 percent population lives will also be digitized. Out of those 6,300 villages only 1,500 are not linked with the ‘digital bridge’ and in next four years, they too will be linked with fast speed Internet.
Kazakhstan, he said, ranked 28th in the world and 8th in the region in use of Information Technology or e-governance. The forum, which is Kazakhstan’s annual Information Technology and Artificial Intelligence event organized by the Astana Hub recently (October 12-13) turned out to be a big success as over 20,000 participants from Kazakhstan, neighbouring countries and companies from the digitally developed world participated in it and took keen interest in the 2-day Digital Bridge 2023.
Munir Ahmed said the forum focused on the importance of “Artificial and Human Intelligence: The Right Balance” with the participation of remarkable personalities from different countries, founders and top managers of technology giants, entrepreneurial startup founders, scientists and students, striving to make the world a better place unitedly through dialogue and to inspire each other.
