Secretary General ITU Calls on Anusha Rahman
Secretary General ITU Mr. Houlin Zhao (who happens to be in Pakistan in
connection with the Asia pacific roundtable conference being hosted by
Pakistan) has called upon the Minister of State for IT&Telecom Mrs.
Anusha Rahman in her office today.
The Minister welcomed Secretary General (ITU) in Pakistan and
appreciated the efforts of the ITU in harmonizing the use of ICT’s
throughout the world. The Minister also briefed the Secretary General
regarding the recent development and key initiatives being taken by
Pakistan in the field of ICT’s
Anusha Rahman said that GOP is fully cognizant of the fact that
development of ICT’s is a key to spur socio economic growth. Therefore
we are rigorously pursuing the agenda of Digital Pakistan on priority
basis. Our vision of accelerated digitalization will surely transform
Pakistan in to a knowledge based economy. She stated that her Government
staunchly believes in ubiquitous development of ICT’s infrastructure
across the country with special emphasis on serving marginalized segment
of the society. Therefore we have already rolled out programmes of
worth Billions of Rupees through USF in order to connect un-served /
under-served areas of Pakistan under “Rural telephony project” and we
are also ensuring the provisioning of 2G/3G services to all these remote
and far flung areas and by end of 2018 such parts of Pakistan will be
connected Insh Allah.
Anusha Rahman further said that our broadband penetration has phenomenally rose to more than 19% from less than 3% within the shortest span of two years and we are anticipating 38% increase by the end of 2020. She said that our Government has successfully curtailed the menace of “Gray Trafficking” Through an appropriate policy intervention and succeeded to bring white minutes back to more than 1.5 Billion per Month.
Minister of IT & Telecom said that we have given a comprehensive
telecom policy document which not only covers regulatory framework but
also addresses all the challenges being faced by the telecom sector in
modern era including availability of spectrum, infrastructure deployment
, content and application development, spectrum trading and spectrum
sharing etc.
Anusha Rahman apprised the Secretary General ITU that provision of ICT
services to the marginalized segment of the society and women
empowerment are the main focused areas which are being dealt on priority
basis by the current government of PMLN . We have started a special
program for the girls of lower income strata/poor segment of the society
through ICT for Girls Project and Latest Skills of Coding and Computing
are being taught to them. so that they could earn their livelihood
honorably, while sitting at their homes. 150 Women empowerment Centres
of Baitulmaal are being equipped for this purpose.
She further said that in order to promote and train the young
entrepreneurs, the first National Incubations Centre has been
established which will start functioning soon. First state of the art
technology park is being established in Islamabad and two more such
parks will also be established soon at Lahore and Karachi respectively.
Anusha Rahman said that “Cyber Security” has become a “Global
Concern” now. We believe that “offline rights should also be available
online” and ITU being a leading global platform must play its role to
address this growing global concern. She also suggested that ITU may
constitute an “Advisory Committee” comprising of all stakeholders to
study this new emerging phenomenon and could take policy measures on
recommendations of Advisory Committee.
Minister also raised the “Afghan sim’s issue with Secretary General ITU.
These sim’s are reportedly being sold at “Pak-Afghan border” area.
Secretary General ITU appreciated the visionary leadership of
Minister for IT&Telecom Anusha Rahman and also congratulated her for
hosting a global event of Asian pacific round table conference first
time being held in Pakistan. In his maiden visit to Pakistan Secretary
General discussed areas of further expansions in ICT including mechanism
for handling cyber crimes and cyber security.
This meeting was followed by a discussion/briefing session with MOIT
team. Federal Secretary IT, Members (IT,Telecom,Legal & HR), CEO’s
USF, ICT R&D Funds Co., DG SCO, and all senior officials of the
Ministry and its attached departments participated in the briefing and
finally Minister thanked the Secretary General ITU for his esteemed
visit to Ministry of IT&Telecom.
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