ISLAMABAD ( BMZ REPORT )
Minister of State for Information Technology, Mrs Anusha Rehman said that the government is committed to provide connectivity to un-served and under-served areas of the country by December 2018.
She expressed these views while addressing the youth parliament’s special session on state of E-Governance and IT in Pakistan stated.
She also shared some key initiatives being taken by her Ministry for the development of ICT sector Anusha Rahman said that the ministry brought 3G /4G in the country and got international recognition for most transparent spectrum auction.
“We have witnessed a phenomenal increase in ratio of broadband penetration which is currently surpassing 24% from less than 3% within shortest span of two years” she said.
The minister said that Pakistan’s free-lancers in the field of IT have been ranked number 4 in the world. Pakistan is aggressively pursuing an accelerated digitalization programme to spur socio-economic growth in the country, she added.
She said that recently launched ICT for Girls Programme was aimed at passing on the benefits of ICT to the less privileged section of society.
Anusha said, that under the programme girls from marginalized sections are being trained on coding and computing with the partnership of Microsoft to increase their employability potential.
Besides, under Universal Service Fund the government is spending billions of rupees to provide telecom and broadband facilities to un-served and under-served areas of the country, she added. Anusha Rahman said that the ministry is simultaneously working on supply and demand side of this sector.
The minister said, “on one hand we are providing connectivity to the people of un-served /under-served areas while on the other hand we are working on the affordability and accessibility of these services. So that people of these marginalized areas could get equal benefits of technological advancement in the country.”
Under women empowerment program , she said, the government is doing feasibility study to provide thirty thousand smart phones and trainings to the women folk of lowest income strata who have been registered with BISP.
She said objective of the programe is to give access to the basic E-Services to these women living in rural areas.
The minister said the country had successfully countered the menace of Grey traffick with effective policy intervention.
And brought back the white traffic to over 1.6 billion minutes from less than 400million minutes.
She said that with strenuous efforts of years, the ministry brought a comprehensive piece of legislation in the shape of cyber crime Act.
“We have given 21 new rights to the people of Pakistan with this new legislation” she said.
At the end of the session she responded to the multi faceted questions of the members of the youth parliament.
Members of the youth parliament paid thanks to the Minister for gracing their session and also appreciated the endeavours of Minister and hailed her vision of socio-economic development through effective mutilization of ICT.
