Federal Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunication Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui said on Wednesday that his Ministry was establishing a regulatory body to promote Information Technology education across country.
The new body, he said, will be tasked to devise education standards and formulate regulations for employability skills, and it will be similar in its functioning to the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council.
“The regulatory authority will strive to standardize IT curriculum in universities to equip our IT graduates with modern IT education and practical so that they can compete with rest of the world,” Siddiqui told journalists on Wednesday.
Siddiqui lamented that Pakistan was still lagging behind other countries in the region in technology development. Speaking highly of Philippines, the minister said this country has IT and electronics exports of more than $30 billion while Pakistan could touch only a $1bn mark last year. However, he added that his ministry was taking steps in the right direction to add Pakistan in the list of countries like Philippines. “We are bringing reforms in sectors of IT and telecom. You will see the result soon,” Siddiqui said.
Answering a query, Mr. Siddiqui said that Pakistan is in touch with world’s leading companies of IT and telecom and planning to take benefit from their expertise in the field of ICT.
When asked about Pakistan’s future plans in the sectors of Information, Communications and Technology, the minister said Pakistan was planning to introduce innovative services in mobile broadband not only to facilitate the consumers but also to attract foreign investment and meet modern-day requirements.
When asked how long will Pakistan take to introduce 5G, , the Minister said Pakistan’s Ministry of Information Technology and Communication is holding back-to-back meetings with concerned departments to make arrangements to roll out 5G. “Please hold for another month as we are currently making arrangements to launch 5G. In March, next month, I will be able to give you specific date for launching 5G,” the minister delineated.
Published in Daily Times, January 31st 2019.
