Pakistan's Transformative Digital Future: Growth Strategy and Road Map

Pakistan's Transformative Digital Future: Growth Strategy and Road Map

Partners: Asian Development Bank (ADB)

Locale: Pakistan

Duration of Project: October 2023 - October 2024

Background:

The global economy is going through a recession due to the global supply chain disruptions through the Ukraine-Russia war, and pandemic recovery causing serious economic issues for developed and developing countries. Developing countries such as Pakistan have a multiplicity of effects of these global shocks. Both external shocks and internal politico-economic uncertainty have brought Pakistan into a constrained situation and put the economy under pressure.

Trade imbalance plays a major role in issues being faced by the economy and experts suggest that one of the most efficient ways to achieve trade balance and hence the balance of payment is through developing the information and communication technology (ICT) sector as a key driver for economic growth. Pakistan has seen an increase in IT exports in the previous few years to around $ 2.1 Billion in FY 2021. With the export potential and the fourth largest IT-earning labor force, Pakistan’s ICT sector has the potential to rejuvenate the economy.

One of the major issues that are diagnosed for issues on the ICT ranking of Pakistan is the fragmentation in the digital ecosystem. Pakistan needs to shift toward a knowledge and innovation-centered economy and this will only be possible when there is significant effort being put together to analyze the digital ecosystem, analyze the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats that are being faced by the sector, using this evidence to formulate and implement pragmatic policy and strategic framework to ensure that the evidence is put to the right use and implemented in the best manner possible.

Literature suggests that a robust digital ecosystem can impact the quality of services that the government offers to other government departments, the private sector, or the citizens through e-governance platforms, and for business-to-business service delivery, providing better data-driven and statistical inference-based strategic and operational decision-making conceptualizations, enhance chances to lure in Foreign Direct Investment, raising digital trade, enhances local productivity through data analytics and business process digitization, and automation. Digital services also are a means to enhance the level of public trust in government through better transparency, and personalization in service delivery along with creating inclusivity through equal opportunities for all.

With Pakistan having 60 percent of its population below the age of 30, digital ecosystem development achieved through better policy and regulatory support can provide unmatched economic opportunities and tools for the youth. This can be achieved through targeted efforts in education and skill development to promote employment, innovative work, and entrepreneurship potential and opportunities for the average citizens of Pakistan. On the other end, through exports, the ICT sector can help diversify Pakistan’s narrow export basket.

Objective:

With this background, the current project has the following objectives:

To develop a country digital ecosystem report to investigate and map networks and supply chains in the digital ecosystem with a strong focus on policy frameworks, enabling an environment for new business models and value chains, youth employment, and entrepreneurship.
To develop a national digital policy framework and sector roadmap for 10 years to support evidence-based sector planning.
To enhance the knowledge and capacities of government officials on the new internet-based business models to develop new value-added opportunities and digital trade.

Based on the three objectives, the activities are defined for each of them.

1.Output 1: Country Digital Ecosystem Diagnostic Report

For the Country Digital Ecosystem (CDE) Diagnostic Report, the following activities are suggested.

• Desk review and qualitative data collection and analysis-based mapping of networks and supply chains that exist in the digital ecosystem.
• Desk review and qualitative data collection and analysis with a lens of policy frameworks for CDE
• Desk review and qualitative data collection and analysis with a lens of enabling regulatory environment for alternate business models and value chains CDE.
• Desk review and qualitative data collection and analysis for youth employment through CDE
• Desk review and qualitative data collection and analysis for entrepreneurship development through CDE

Some of the major tools that will be used for the development of CDE diagnostic reports include but are not limited to:

• Stakeholder analysis including stakeholder cube.
• Policy Analysis
• Regulatory analysis and analysis of the regulatory impact
• Secondary data trend analysis using governmental databases.
• Report writing and editing.

2.Output 2: National Digital Policy Framework and Sector Roadmap

For the National Digital Policy Framework (NDPF) and Sector-development roadmap (SDR), the following activities are suggested.

• Desk review and qualitative data collection and analysis-based mapping of existing relevant policies
• Development of a 10-year master SDF
• Prepare several analytical briefs and regulatory assessments to support the evidence-based sector planning.

Some of the major tools that will be used for the development of NDPF and SDR include but are not limited to:

• Policy Analysis
• Regulatory analysis and analysis of the regulatory impact
• Secondary data trend analysis using governmental databases.
• Report writing and editing.

Team Members:  Dr Vaqar Ahmed, Engr. Ahad Nazir, Abdullah Khalid, Maheen Rehan, Hammad Nadir, and Fatima Muzammil