Alvi highlights criticality of IT development for economic uplift

ISLAMABAD: President Dr Arif Alvi said that Pakistan’s economic uplift was linked to the development of information technology in the country.

“There is a need to equip youth with skills of the latest technology. The country’s economy could further boost and its GDP growth rate could increase by 2-3 percent by easing the financial movement and financial transactions. Pakistan had become the second largest freelance market in the world, however, the people were facing issues related to financial transactions,” the president expressed these views while addressing the closing ceremony of Huawei ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) Competition 2022-23, here on Wednesday.

Huawei Technologies held the closing ceremony of the Huawei ICT Competition 2022-23, here at the Aiwan-e-Sadar, celebrating the success of the Pakistani teams that brought home prizes in the regional competitions.

The students from Pakistan won second and third prizes in the Network Track and third prize in the Innovation Track at the Huawei ICT Competition 2022-2023 Global Final concluded at Huawei Headquarters in Shenzhen, China.

The first to be held in person since 2019, the event’s culmination was a competition between finalists in 146 teams from 36 countries.

The president said that Huawei was going to open its global service center in Pakistan which would create employment opportunities besides ensuring technology transfer to the youth of the country.

“This ICT Competition Program from Huawei speaks volumes of the efforts made in the past decade and how this industry-academia relationship has been thriving towards providing the solid backbone towards the ICT industry of Pakistan,” he added.

The president stressed that the universities should arrange boot camp in the campuses to train the university graduates and make them ready for the market.

He also urged the universities to start two-year undergraduate associate degree programmes for students as the growing technology around the globe does not need degrees but skills.

The president said in today’s time, every person irrespective of which field he or she was in, should be familiar with the basics of modern technology including artificial intelligence, IT, and clouding etc. He said the political and bureaucratic leadership must also be equipped with the basic skills of IT and modern technology.

He said a program was initiated by the government to train 1,000 bureaucrats in the IT field but despite, several years, only 800 received the required training due to a lack of will by the officers.

Expressing disappointment over a high rate of out-of-school children in the country, the president said 27 million or 32 percent children were out of school. The government, he said would need to build 55,000 new schools to accommodate all the children which would need huge resources.

Therefore, he said the online education system should be launched to address the issue on an emergency basis. He said knowledge was no more in the books but it was in the clouds that did not need any specific infrastructure.

He said the government had launched Prime Minister’s Digital Skills Programme, under which, 2.2 million people received free IT training.

The president said the youth should not be worried about the country’s weak economic situation as it would get better soon but they should continue focusing on developing their skills. “Use your talent and grow up in the world,” he advised the youth.

He said women in Pakistan were culturally not very active in outdoor activities, so this platform was an ideal way for them to earn money while sitting at home.

Earlier, the president presented the second prize certificate in the Network Track to Muhammad Faeez Ali, Asad Anwer from Mehran University of Engineering and Technology, Jamshoro and Maryam Fareed from Lahore College for Women University.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023