Pakistan’s economic uplift linked with IT development: President Alvi

ISLAMABAD: President Dr Arif Alvi on Wednesday stressed the need to equip the youth with skills of latest technology, saying that Pakistan’s economic uplift was linked with the development of Information Technology in the country.

He said Pakistan has become the second largest freelance market in the world, however, the people are facing issues related to financial transactions.

He underlined that by easing the financial movement and financial transactions in Pakistan, the country’s economy could further boost and its GDP growth rate could increase by 2-3 percent, the official news agency reported.

Addressing the closing ceremony of Huawei ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) competition 2022-23 here, the President said IT has now become an unavoidable part of almost every filed of life. He informed that Huawei was going to open its global service centre in Pakistan which will create employment opportunities besides ensuring technology transfer to the youth of the country.

“This ICT competition programme from Huawei speaks volumes of the efforts made in the past decade and how this industry-academia relationship has been thriving towards providing a solid backbone towards the ICT industry of Pakistan,” he added.

President Alvi stressed that universities should arrange boot camps in the campuses to train university graduates and make them ready for the market.

He also urged the universities to start two-year undergraduate associate degree programmes for the students as the growing technology around the globe does not need degrees but skills.

Huawei Technologies held the closing ceremony of Huawei ICT Competition 2022-23 at the Aiwan-e-Sadar, celebrating the success of the Pakistani teams that brought home prizes in the regional competitions.

Students from Pakistan won second and third prizes in the Network Track and third prize in the Innovation Track in the Huawei ICT Competition 2022-2023 Global Final concluded at Huawei Headquarters in Shenzhen, China.

The first to be held in person since 2019, the event’s culmination was a competition between finalists in 146 teams from 36 countries.

President Alvi said in today’s time, every person — irrespective of which filed he or she is in — should be familiar with the basics of modern technology including artificial intelligence, IT, and clouding, etc.

Earlier, Dr Alvi presented the second prize certificate in the Network Track to Muhammad Faeez Ali and Asad Anwer from Mehran University of Engineering and Technology, Jamshoro, and Maryam Fareed from Lahore College for Women University.

Caretaker Minister for IT and Telecommunication Dr Umar Saif said Pakistan was blessed with immense potential and talent in the shape of youth that comprised of around 67 percent of the total population.

He said the South and East Asia were now becoming centres of gravity in science and technology, and Pakistan was considered the rising power in the region.

President Public Affairs and Communication Huawei Technologies Middle East and Central Asia Wang Shunli said the Huawei ICT Competition 2022-2023 attracted 120,000 students from over 2,000 universities and colleges across the globe.

The objectives of the competition, he said, were to encourage knowledge transfer in latest technology such as 5G, artificial intelligence and clouding, etc. to the Pakistani talented youth. He said the competition also helped promot digital transformation and sustainable development for both business and the society in Pakistan.