President Alvi for women empowerment through IT

• The President extensively discussing world economies which in no time had managed to make major inroads in terms of socio-economic development, said Pakistanis too hold every potential to grab opportunities.
• Timely decisions/policy and prompt as well as efficient implementation were critical requirements of the modern day world.

KARACHI: President Arif Alvi here on Thursday strongly recommended women empowerment in the country through their capacity building in the field of Information Technology (IT).

Addressing the concluding ceremony of IT Minister's Forum for Youth, Innovation and Industry during ITCN-Asia 2019 at EXPO Center, he said that abundance of human potential and digital access in the country needed to be efficiently utilized.

Human resource in the country, he emphasized could be groomed through world standard training in ever expanding and transforming technology closely linked to digitalization.

With regard to women, he said in the country where women, by choice, prefer to work from their homes, IT could be a great tool for their empowerment.

President Alvi in that context reminded that 80 percent medical graduates, and more or less equal percentage of engineering graduates passing out each year from different universities of the country were women.

He reminded that a mere 20 to 30 percent of them joined the workforce.

"We can tap this potential for our development through their capacity building in the technology," he said.

The President extensively discussing world economies which in no time had managed to make major inroads in terms of socio-economic development, said Pakistanis too hold every potential to grab opportunities.

He, however, strongly recommended that the Ministry of Information Technology and Higher Education Commission must focus not only on standardization of training but also making it world class.

"Our youth through updated quality training cannot only avail of existing opportunities in the developed world but also carve niche for themselves in the country itself.

"We need to chain our youth and the industry to invest in IT sector," the President said reminding timely decisions/policy and prompt as well as efficient implementation were critical requirements of the modern day world.

He also emphasized importance of  congenial atmosphere for investment in particular context of ease of doing business along with growing need for cyber security.

There was abundance of customized data in the country that needed to be adequately and efficiently channelized with due stock towards ethical application and security.

President Alvi appreciated that Federal Ministry of IT was in process of getting trained, some 200 IT experts as master trainers at reputable institutions.

Hoping that it would be done on sound grounds, he said this could upgrade the capacities of vast majority of local instructors and the graduates/ undergraduates in the country.

The session was also addressed by Federal Minister for Information Technology, Dr.Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui and Ms. Tania Aidrus.