Staff Reporter
President Dr. Arif Alvi on Monday stressed the transforming of existing cities into smart cities to improve the governance as well as well-being of the people.
Chairing a meeting on Smart Cities Programme at the Aiwan-e-Sadr, the emphasized the need to deploy smart technologies in all cities of the country, ensuring safety, security and overall optimum quality of life for all citizens.
The meeting was attended by Minister for Science and Technology Chaudhary Fawad Hussain, Secretary Science & Technology Arshad Mehmood, Chairman Higher Education Commission Dr. Tariq Banuri and other IT experts from NUST and COMSATS.
President Alvi underscored that it was essential to utilize artificial intelligence and other related technologies to introduce data-driven algorithms into governance, education, energy, industry, infrastructure, healthcare, mobility and other aspects that directly contributed to improve the lives of the citizens.
He said the digital revolution was offering an unprecedented window of opportunity to improve the lives of millions of urban residents and deliver more efficient, sustainable and inclusive urban services to the citizens.
A detailed presentation by the Ministry of Science and Technology highlighted the advantages of Smart Cities Technologies that provided smart solutions to governance, healthcare, infrastructure, crime control, transportation, waste management, cyber security and mobility.
The Ministry informed that a team of experts had been constituted to lead the smart cities initiatives. The meeting was briefed about the key products of National Centres which had been established by Higher Education Commission to focus on research and development in the specialized domains. The products, prepared by the National Centres, will help in efficiently managing transport, detecting crimes and investigating cyber crimes.
It was also apprised that the Government of Nigeria had lauded the efforts of National Radio Telecommunication Corporation (NRTC) for providing state-of-the-art counter-terrorism equipment.
