FEDERAL Minister for Information Technology and Telecom Shaza Fatima Khawaja, while inaugurating Zong’s new state-of-the-art data centre in Islamabad on Wednesday, enumerated measures undertaken by the government to promote Information Technology, especially Artificial Intelligence (AI) to facilitate citizens and promote good governance.
She particularly mentioned that in just one year, we have added three new submarine cables to improve connectivity and also eliminated right-of-way charges to facilitate the expansion of fibre optic networks.
It is a matter of satisfaction that Zong has been instrumental in efforts to bring the latest technology and services to people of Pakistan and this is also evident in the establishment of AI-driven cloud infrastructure in Pakistan, which is a significant milestone in the country’s digital transformation. It may be pointed out that work is in progress on the Digital Silk Route and its completion will further improve Pakistan’s connectivity with global digital networks. Zong and other Chinese companies’ investments in Pakistan align with the country’s national connectivity plans for the next five years. The Minister highlighted the partnership between China Mobile and Pakistan in enhancing optical fibre connectivity, which provides the fastest and most efficient route for data transmission between Pakistan and China. Another important move is a blockchain agreement with the Higher Education Commission (HEC) for degree verification, which will make it possible to have online immediate degree verification providing great convenience to young graduates. All the measures referred to by the Minister will go a long way in promoting IT services in Pakistan but more important should be the concerns about outages and slow speed, which must be addressed on priority basis in consultation with relevant stakeholders.
