ICT entrepreneurs, startups and SMEs are future of Pakistan: IT minister

The information, communication, and technology (ICT) sector of Pakistan is growing and it has the potential to further expand in near future, said Federal Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunication (MoITT), Dr. Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui.

Khalid Siddiqui was recently addressing the “Huawei Mobile Summit 2019” in Islamabad, where he gave his remarks on the booming ICT sector of the country. He said that only technology and quality education can help in minimizing poverty. As he stated;

“We need to keep our pace with world to end unemployment. Improve our IT education standard as more than 25,000 IT graduates are being produced each year but only a few thousand get a job in the market.”

The federal minister further added that the government is struggling to produce the best IT graduates and in this regard, a comprehensive policy in consultation with the universities would be introduced. He also discussed govt’s plan to establish a regulatory authority on IT education which would help improve the standard and create more employment opportunities.

Khalid Siddiqui emphasized on the need for the dynamic development of the ICT sector of Pakistan as it is one of the key sectors to boost economies and driving efficiencies. He said that ICT entrepreneurs, startups and small to medium size enterprises (SMEs) are Pakistan’s future.

IT ministry is aiming to digitize all departments and ministries as the minister also affirmed in his speech;

Our main task is to assist all ministries in the field of IT. We need to encourage those Pakistanis who achieved excellence while working abroad.”

Govt is also devising a comprehensive cybersecurity policy that will utilize a multi-stakeholder approach and would be introduced soon.