The world is entering the era of digital economy and society. Information and communications technologies (ICTs) are increasingly integrated into and enabling every economic and social aspect. The COVID-19 pandemic once again reminds us how digital readiness could better equip a country with resources to cope with crisis and resilience for future recovery. It is highly imperative for Pakistan, therefore, to adopt ICTs as a key growth engine to drive forward its national development efforts.
The Government of Pakistan has always been an advocate of digital transformation, the Ministry of IT & Telecommunication has started major ICT initiatives including e-Government, e-Learning, e-Health and other schemes that are designed to boost the adoption of ICT based applications within the public sector. Especially enhancing connectivity which is one of the fundamental pillars of Digitalization in any country. For example, Pakistan Cellular subscribers have now reached to 195 Million which is 88% population penetration and 4G User have grown exponentially from just 5 Million users to more than 80 Million 4G subscribers in a few Years. Ministries efforts for Right of Way policy will help to enhance the Fiber Penetration rate in Pakistan. And MoITT’s National cyber Security policy is key to define the requirements of security and encourage the development of new technologies with risk control mechanisms to address both the economic objectives and security needs.
This whitepaper is to provide a review of Pakistan’s ICT development progress and map out its way forward towards national digital transformation. It provides a review of Pakistan’s ICT development progress and maps out its way forward towards national digital transformation. By reviewing and measuring Pakistan’s digital journey, from the overall socio-economic dimension down to its digital economy and ICT sectoral development, an outlook is also provided for the country’s promising future. The whitepaper reviews the current status of Pakistan’s ICT development, focusing on the IT & Telecom sector (mobile broadband, fixed broadband, data center, and IoT), the public sectors (digital government, e-education, and Universal Service Fund), the private sectors (e-agriculture and e-commerce), and cybersecurity. Global trends and best practices are also identified for Pakistan to identify gaps and potentials for future development.
The whitepaper proposes a digital framework policy using the Digital Pakistan Vision as the key. It aims to identify the ICT regulation priorities and steer the multi-stakeholder digital efforts. Digital adoption and utilization is one of the biggest challenges faced by Pakistan’s digital transformation, the whitepaper proposes that digital utilization could be promoted from three aspects, including government leadership, ecosystem, and digital awareness and skills. Human resource and entrepreneurship are the foundation of all digital efforts, after all.
In compliance with the vision and directions of Prime Minister of Pakistan, Ministry of IT has taken concrete steps in making the country sound and strong on digital front including the National ICT White Paper, which is a guideline for the development of the ICT Sector. National ICT whitepaper will provide a framework for Digitalization in Pakistan Recommendations and insights in the National ICT whitepaper have provided global references and indexes for setting the goals and direction for Digital Pakistan. This whitepaper highlights the need of policies to address the demands of digital society
Pakistan has embarked upon a sustainable and inclusive growth and all the economic indicators and recent developments signify the strength and reliability of the government in reinvigorating the economy, spurring growth, maintaining price stability, providing jobs to the youth and rebuilding key infrastructure of the country. The Government of Pakistan (GoP) is committed to correcting fundamentals of the economy through effective policy making and targeted reforms, and Huawei Pakistan will always be ready to provide support when called upon.
