While giving a key note address at the Summit on "Digital Inclusion" at the GSMA Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, the Minister of State for Information Technology stated that "although the information and communication technologies have revolutionised our lives, but the real challenge remains to include all sections and groups of society to contribute and take benefit of ICT revolution."
Minister, who was a guest of honour at the Ministerial Programme of the Congress, added that "Digital inclusion lies at the heart of our ICT policies and in this regard, the role of all the stakeholders is critically important. It is incumbent on government to appreciate and address this greater policy agenda, telecom operators to facilitate through infrastructure development and content/application providers to customise and to innovate solutions".
She further said that the policy focus of our government is to provide universal, affordable and equitable access to the people of our country and we believe that proliferation of broadband is the modus operandi to achieve all these goals. My government is committed to develop opportunities for women empowerment that ICT has enabled, and digital inclusion of people with disabilities.
On the sidelines of the conference, the CEOs of Etisalat, Telenor and VimpleCom Groups also called upon Minister for IT. Matters pertaining to further development of Pakistani telecom market especially in context of immense market potential of mobile broadband provision, application development and associated services came under discussion. Minister of State for IT invited them to further consider strengthening their respective positions through participation in upcoming spectrum auction for Next Generation Mobile Services. Government of Pakistan is currently considering auction of the frequency blocks left unsold in last year's spectrum auction, she said.-PR