Tania Aidrus reveals the plan behind Digital Pakistan vision

• The Digital Pakistan vision encompasses five areas i.e. Access and Connectivity, Digital Infrastructure, eGovernment, Digital Skills & Training and Innovation and Entrepreneurship.
•  Digital Pakistan’s focus is primarily on ensuring that desirable outcomes are achieved.

Former Google's executive and chief of Digital Pakistan Vision, Tania Aidrus shared the underpinnings of the Digital Pakistan program, and what does the program aim to achieve in the country.

In a tweet post, the former Google executive described of what she called “the heart and core of everything we build towards achieving the dream of a Digital and Prosperous Pakistan.”

She informed that the Digital Pakistan vision encompasses five areas i.e. Access and Connectivity, Digital Infrastructure, eGovernment, Digital Skills & Training and Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

“As a mission driven initiative, Digital Pakistan’s focus is primarily on ensuring that desirable outcomes are achieved. Specifically, this means that Digital Pakistan’s success should primarily be measured on whether such outcomes are actually achieved,” read the document.

The documents further included the ‘Key Digital Pakistan Principles.’ i.e. as under:

1. #shaamil-Responsible and inclusive access to information and information technologies are a fundamental right.

• Affordable access to any required hardware devices (e.g. low-end smartphones)
• Universal data access (e.g., connectivity in geographically remote areas)
• Affordable data access ( e.g., mobile subscription plan)
• As free flow of information as possible

2. #hunarmand- 21^st century skills to reap benefits of technology.

• Digital literacy and how to operate e.g. a smartphone.
• Skills for digitally enabled jobs (e.g. home-based selling of goods via social media)

3. #pehchaan- Simplify interaction between citizens, government and the broader economy.

• Development of a ‘Pakistan Stack’ as technology and data infrastructure connecting these different spheres.
• Using digital technologies for easier and more transparent public expenditures, tax collection as well as prevention of tax evasion.
• Driving towards the ‘Ask only once’ principle i.e., aim to ensure that citizens, institutions and companies only have to provide certain standard information to the authorities and the administration once.

4. #digitaljugarus- An inclusive digital revolution must be a boon for all.

• Fostering mass employment creation through digital platforms like marketplaces, freelancing communities or ride hailing companies.
• Creating an appropriate legal, financial and regulatory environment for technology startups to flourish.
• Be the conduit of linking local digital skills supply with global demand in areas with high global demand like machine learning or python.

The document further highlighted the challenges to implement this vision, as the key areas of development pointed out include: Channeling of and representing the Digital Pakistan Movement; Information dissemination; Policy advancement or intervention; Technology development; Building bridges and facilitating dialogues between citizens, government, local industry and international players.