ISLAMABAD ( BMZ REPORT )
Minister for IT, Mrs. Anusha Rahman held inaugural telepresence meeting with Cisco international team. The meeting was attended by Dr. Robert Pepper Vice President Global Telecom Policy Cisco, Pastora Velero Vice President Government and Regulatory Affairs, Mr. Naveed Qazi Cisco Country Head Pakistan and Member HR Ministry of IT, Mr. Tahir Mushtaq. During the meeting, numerous areas of collaboration have been explored.
“We believe that to achieve our vision of Digital Pakistan, public private partnership is the way forward. That’s why we are engaging the key stake holders in the equation. Cisco being a big tech company are also keen to accelerate the pace of digitization for socio economic development of Pakistan. Anusha Rahman said.
“Pakistan is steering towards an enabling eco system where the technology giants of World are looking at Pakistan as a potential hub of technology and innovation due to its highly talented and cost effective human resource capital” she said the talent landscape and Government’s prioritization to the team.
Minister shared with Cisco team the resolve of the Government to use ICT as a lever of socio economic progress. She said,” In this journey, we have placed a central focus on gender equality. Numerous programs for the uplift of women are in process. That includes ICTs for Girls program where thousands of girls from marginalized sections of society are to be trained to enhance their employability potential with the collaboration of Microsoft. We have allocated 30% quota in our ICT internship program and National Incubation program to mainstream our girls in National Progress”.
The Cisco team showed their keen interest to partner with Pakistan through their technology centric CSR initiatives for training the human capital of Pakistan. They have shared their numerous technology models working at various parts of the world which resulted into the economic progress of the countries. During the meeting, it was decided that Cisco will lend their technical expertise to Pakistan improving its ICT indicators. Alongside, they also agreed to work out ICT capacity building program for students
Mrs. Anusha Rahman urged upon the Cisco team to put in place innovative and cost effective models to help broaden the technology base of the country, besides helping the under privileged segments of the society in the field of health and education.
The Minister for IT expressed her Government’s support for all technology giants to broaden their foot print in the country.