Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah said on Thursday that his government was taking measures to digitalize its departments in order to promote transparency and efficiency through digital advancement. Addressing participants of a leadership summit on "Scaling the Fourth Industrial Revolution" organized by the Chartered Accountant Women's Committee (CAWC), he said that the province's land revenue department has become best in Sindh after its computerization and digitalization of the land records.
"All departmental activities and the monitoring of projects are on my Ipad," he said. The Chartered Accountant Women's Committee was recently formed by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Pakistan (ICAP). It is the result of ICAP's initiative for capacity building of women chartered accountants and female students aspiring to be chartered accountants.
Earlier, CAWC chairperson Hina Usmani had said in address that her organization is working for the empowerment of Pakistani women in all professions. The chief minister said his government is training around 15,000 persons in its IT sector. He recalled that only a few years ago the finance departments' allocation and disbursements were considered state secrets. But now all the record, which is updated every quarter, is available online.
The chief minister said he welcomed ICAP's provision of a platform for women in the business world to gain leadership positions and take part in the country's progress on an equal footing. Professor Atta-ur-Rahman, chairman of the UN Committee on Science, Technology and Innovation, stressed for taking steps to reap the benefits of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) through a knowledge-based approach.
He called for further investment in the education sector so that the country can become a vibrant part of 4IR. The World Bank's country director in Pakistan, Iilango Patchamuthu, said that Pakistan has done well in three areas, and needs to be utilized for 4IR.
The first is the demographic dividend, which is to create opportunities for all young people through either entrepreneurship or enhancing skills so that they could get jobs or do their own business, he said. Second is the area of digital divide, There are more than 150 million mobile users but the gap between men and women using mobile phones needs to be closed and there should be a focus on the urban-rural divide so that farmers can use the mobile technology to improve their yields.
The third area is human capital, where much effort is needed in education, health sectors. Pakistan needs to seriously take steps to invest in education and healthcare services for attaining 8 percent GDP growth rate and moderate its population growth between 0.8 percent to 1 percent, otherwise the current status quo will lead to a point where existing resources will not be enough to adequately meet the needs of future generations, Patchamuthu noted.
Jennifer K. Thomson, the World Bank's chief financial management officer and director policy and country services, addressed the audience through a video message, in which she congratulated ICAP for holding the summit. She highlighted the opportunities and challenges being faced by women in the digital age. The event was attended by corporate executives and industry leaders, and there presence resulted in insightful discussions with the audience.