ISLAMABAD, Jun 9 (APP):President Dr Arif Alvi Thursday said that timely decision making in adopting the emerging technologies, continuation of proven and successful policies of the governments, imparting IT and digital skills to the uneducated and dropout, achieving gender balance, and introducing cutting edge technologies and innovation in IT, business and industry could catapult Pakistan into an economically strong country in shortest possible timeframe.
These views were expressed by the president while addressing the “Technology Awards 2022” ceremony organised by Rawalpindi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (RCCI), at Aiwan-e-Sadr here.
President Alvi appreciated RCCI initiative and said that this award will acknowledge and recognize IT professional and IT companies and appreciate their excellence in innovation, business acumen and technological leadership and would encourage them to further improve the quality of their goods and services by fine tuning their business processes and updating their technologies.
He said that adopting advance level IT and artificial intelligence, and cyber technologies the internet of things and 3-D printing in their professional and business processes will reduce the cost of production, improve the speed of operations and minimizing errors. He said, “it is like riding a fast moving train to reach to the destination of progress and prosperity in a short period of time compared to riding a slow moving and inefficient train.”
The president while highlighting many emerging opportunities in data analysis, cyber security, artificial intelligence and other areas of the IT sector said that the 3rd industrial revolution completely changed the industrial outlook of the world, while the 4th industrial revolution brought artificial intelligence, management of big data, opportunities in global semiconductor market which expected to grow to USD 1 trillion by 2030.
He stressed the need to impart appropriate digital and IT skills to un-educated persons and school drop-out to provide them decent living and to fill the huge gap of skilled workers in ever growing IT sector.
The president said the government should take timely decisions to introduce cutting edge technologies in the country and the businesses should focus on transforming their processes with AI to enlarge their scope of work and customer base.
He stressed that the society should provide enabling environment to women which make of 52% of our population by ensuring their financial inclusion, security and safety and giving them property rights.
The president said that overall business climate of the country had been improved by introducing ease of doing business, reforms in setting up of Special Technology Zones and by introducing trade and investment friendly policies.
He expressed his full confidence that by adopting these measures Pakistan could increase the export of IT products and services from current level to US$15 billion in the shortest possible time frame.
He called upon the members of RCCI to further motivate its members to diversity and add value in their product lines and market them aggressively in new exports markets while maintaining internationally accepted ethical values, environment friendliness and meeting health and safety standards.
Chairman RCCI Technology Summit Omer Iqbal, President RCCI Ch Nadeem A Rauf, Group Leader RCCI Sohail Altaf also addressed the ceremony. They stressed the need for continuous patronage and support of the government for the IT and business sector. Earlier, President also distributed awards among the winners in different categories.
