Experts at a seminar have stressed the need for adopting Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in development process to bridge the widening development gap on a fast track pace. The seminar ‘ICTs for all: Pakistan vision-2015’ was organized by Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) here on Monday.
Brig (Retd.) Mohammad Yasin, SDPI Senior Advisor, Center for Capacity-building and Study Group on Information Technology and Telecommunication chaired the proceedings.
An ICT expert and former Additional Director General, Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Ammar Jaffri on the occasion said Pakistan has made rapid progress in ICT sector in the recent past as Information Technology has been deeply penetrated into today’s life. “However, at the moment, teledensity in Pakistan is largely restricted to urban areas, showing a significant digital divide, and the country has to go a long way ahead covering the far flung areas such as Balochistan, Gilgit-Baltistan, and other remote areas of the country” he added.
He was of the view that Pakistan has not been able to effectively use ICT for development despite achieving exceptional progress in the areas of teledensity, internet growth, computer and mobile phone usage.
He said, Pakistan has a huge potential and can still take advantage of ICT revolution in development process if it makes a road map about the use of ICTs for all in the areas of education, health, agriculture and governance. He presented his road-map of ‘Pakistan vision 2015’ for ICT growth through which the country can catch up with world that can produce skilled and motivated force of young ‘agents of change’ in Pakistan.