EDITORIAL: Recent years have seen much hype surrounding Pakistan’s purported digital revolution, with the emergence of a technology landscape marked by the rise of a plethora of e-commerce businesses, tech start-ups, software houses and a freelance economy that appears poised for a major take-off.
However, there are still considerable doubts regarding the fruits of this digital transformation seeping deep into the country’s socioeconomic fabric. The findings of the UN Development Programme’s (UNDP’s) first-ever Digital Development Index (DDI) report, released on April 23 and which measures digital development progress across Pakistan, will only serve to solidify these doubts.
The one major highlight from the DDI report that immediately catches attention is the fact that over half the country does not have access to the internet, with 54.3 percent of the population lacking this vital resource, largely due to inadequate digital infrastructure and affordability challenges.
This is brought into sharp focus by the fact that digital development in Pakistan’s richest quintile was 15-fold greater than the poorest quintile, pointing to wealth contributing significantly to a person’s ability to take advantage of the digital dividend.
In a similar vein, there also appears to be a strong correlation between districts that perform better on digital transformation and those that have higher human development outcomes, highlighting the presence of a digital divide that has contributed to socioeconomic and human development disparities among different parts of the country.
Also notable is the gender dimension of this digital divide that has led to women being considerably underserved, with a shocking 83.5 percent of them stating that they do not have control over decisions regarding phone ownership, with this being in the hands of either their spouse or parents.
The glaring contrast here with men is all too obvious with 77 percent stating that this is their own decision. This has all combined to result in Pakistan being categorised as ‘moderate’ when it comes to digital development, which in turn has also led to low rankings on both the Human Development Index and the Gender Inequality Index.
The encouraging elements that the report highlights include the 87.35 million internet users in the country as well as significant mobile connectivity that could be attributed to low mobile data rates. At the same time, however, fixed broadband charges remain largely unaffordable for most, with there being considerable quality and connectivity challenges.
This is in addition to the low national average when it comes to access to desktop computers, laptops and tablets. While the e-commerce sector, encouragingly, is the 36th largest in the world in terms of revenue generation, there is still huge untapped potential for further growth here.
The importance of digital development in fostering innovation and efficiency across different sectors, and unlocking opportunities for improvements in human development indices cannot be overstated. And as the Minister for Planning Ahsan Iqbal stated at the release of the report, digital technologies have become as indispensable as essential services like electricity, healthcare and education.
However, frequent arbitrary internet shutdowns for ostensibly political purposes, which, according to the report, led to significant losses per day, are not the actions of a country that accords this significant resource the importance it deserves.
A change in mindset that discourages such illogical, draconian actions as well as urgent policy reforms aimed at catering to the challenges posed by poor access to the internet, inadequate data privacy and security, inconsistencies in the e-commerce regulatory environment and a less-than-ideal digital payments ecosystem are the need of the hour. As pointed out by a UNDP official, a “targeted digital transformation” could provide the firepower needed to ignite widespread socioeconomic progress and improved human development outcomes.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024
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