Anusha lauds US Global Internet Connect Initiative

ISLAMABAD, Dec 19 (APP): Minister of State For Information Technology and Telecom Anusha Rahman Khan on Saturday appreciated the Global Connect Initiative being launched by the US to support growth of internet access and connectivity across the globe.
The initiative will provide internet access to more than 1.5 billion unconnected global citizens by 2020.
Anusha Rahman Khan made these remarks during her meeting at the US Mission to the United Nations, said a message received here from New York on Saturday.
In an event organized by Catherine Novelli, Under Secretary for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment, on the sidelines of the High Level Meeting of the UN General Assembly in New York, the minister appreciated the programme and the role it is expected to play in the achievement of the targets set by the Sustainable development Goals of the UN.
Anusha Rahman highlighted the initiatives being pursued in Pakistan for connecting the underserved and unserved. The meeting was also attended by senior officials from Global corporate like Google, Microsoft and others.
The minister stressed the need for addressing all the components of the value chain in order for the initiatives like these to bridge the digital divide within and between nations.
She termed the innovative use of development financing and particularly meaningful and adequate allocation of Universal Service Funds available to most countries, as an element of major importance to bring about universal global connectivity.
Equally important, however, she said were the community use computer hardware, local networking, and training software and citizen centric applications to take maximum utility of connectivity to these new targeted users which in most cases will be from truly marginalized communities.
All stakeholders in governments, international financing agencies, private sector operators and civil society needs to play their role to complete this value chain, she added.
Participants present during the meeting showed their commitment to major initiatives like the Global Connect and all other efforts of similar nature being undertaken by the stakeholders and pledged innovative solutions to bridge the connectivity and internet access gaps for its achievement of the digital and knowledge economy objectives which are mutually shared.
Under Secretary Novelli also laid down the future engagement roadmap for the initiative.