It has always been my pleasure to patronise events that are beneficial for the growth of digitisation of the economy. Banking is one of the fastest growing sectors on the national horizon and its electronic advancements have far reaching effects. Organising the event of such an international repute for third successive year speaks volume of the organisers' commitment to the cause of e-banking.
The Ministry of IT and Telecom has been very active over the last few years in providing the underlying infrastructure to all the stakeholders at a very rapid pace and at specially reduced rates. The bandwidth, data and voice communication costs have been reduced substantially, and the quality of service has been improved.
This has enabled users of these technologies to establish and expand their networks over WAN using both wireline and wireless modes.
This infrastructure provides the base upon which e-banking services can be offered by the financial sector to their end customers. With a wider spectrum of specially allocated frequencies available to the different players, banking and associated applications can now utilise the media of their choice to deliver services.
This has paved the way for easy-to-use credit and debit cards, ATM, call centers and other alternate delivery channels across the country. It is very encouraging to note that such services are being established at a rapid pace. Through the extensive use of internet, now available through more than 2,500 PTCL exchanges, internet banking facilities can now be offered to people on travel or living in far flung areas.
The exponential growth in mobile phone users is providing banks with a huge market that can be catered for by mobile banking facilities. The ease and independence provided by such emerging technologies has opened up new vistas of banking in Pakistan.
I am glad that foreign and local experts are discussing issues of mutual interest that will be beneficial for all concerned. I hope that events like "e-Banking - Challenges Ahead" will continue to be held in the future as well.
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