ISLAMABAD, Jul 18 (APP): Secretary General ITU Houlin Zhao on Monday called upon the Minister of State for IT and Telecom Anusha Rahman at her office.
The Minister welcomed Secretary General (ITU) in Pakistan and appreciated the efforts of the ITU in harmonizing the use of ICT’s throughout the world. The Minister also briefed the Secretary General regarding the recent development and key initiatives being taken by Pakistan in the field of ICT’s, said a press release issued here.
Anusha said that GOP is fully cognizant of the fact that
development of ICT’s is a key to spur socio economic growth.
Therefore we are rigorously pursuing the agenda of Digital Pakistan on priority basis. Our vision of accelerated digitalization will surely transform Pakistan in to a knowledge based economy.
She stated that her Government staunchly believes in
ubiquitous development of ICT’s infrastructure across the country with special emphasis on serving marginalized segment of the society.
Therefore we have already rolled out programmes of worth
Billions of Rupees through USF in order to connect un-served areas of Pakistan under “Rural telephony project” and we are also ensuring the provisioning of 2G/3G services to all these remote and far flung areas and by end of 2018 such parts of Pakistan will be connected.
Anusha further said that our broadband penetration has
phenomenally rose to more than 19% from less than 3% within the shortest span of two years and we are anticipating 38% increase by the end of 2020.
She said that our Government has successfully curtailed the
menace of “Gray Trafficking” Through an appropriate policy
intervention and succeeded to bring white minutes back to more than 1.5 Billion per Month.
She apprised the Secretary General ITU that provision of ICT
services to the marginalized segment of the society and women empowerment are the main focused areas which are being dealt on priority basis by the current government of PMLN. We have started a special program for the girls of lower income strata/poor segment of the society through ICT for Girls Project and Latest Skills of Coding and Computing are being taught to them.
She further said that in order to promote and train the young
entrepreneurs, the first National Incubations Centre has been
established which will start functioning soon. First State Of The Art Technology Park is being established in Islamabad and two more such parks will also be established soon at Lahore and Karachi respectively.
She also raised the “Afghan sim’s issue with Secretary General ITU. These sim’s are reportedly being sold at “Pak-Afghan border” area.
Secretary General ITU appreciated the visionary leadership of
the Minister and congratulated her for hosting a global event of Asian pacific round table conference first time being held in
Pakistan.
In his maiden visit to Pakistan Secretary General discussed
areas of further expansions in ICT including mechanism for handling cyber crimes and cyber security.
