ISLAMABAD: The proposed National IT Policy 2016 would be submitted to the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet for an approval within the next six weeks. The Ministry of Information Technology consulted stakeholders to review the final draft National IT policy on Thursday.
Minister of State for IT and Telecom Anusha Rehman, while chairing the event, said that this policy document would not deliver desired results until and unless it was not endorsed and owned by the industry and other stakeholders.
She said, “In last few years, the world witnessed a phenomenal growth in our IT Sector due to our appropriate policy measures and strenuous efforts. Therefore, we earned four international recognitions which speak volumes of our inclination and determination to bring an IT revolution in the country.”
The minister said that the government gave the highest priority to the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector, particularly IT exports, e-governance entrepreneurship, and innovation, to accelerate digitisation and expand the knowledge-based economy.
“We want to bring a comprehensive new IT policy which ensures creation of a holistic digital ecosystem with wide-ranging objectives like promoting innovation and entrepreneurship, infrastructure development, increase in IT exports, legislative measures to safeguard software industry, enabling e-commerce environment, and Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) for IT accessibility.”
Anusha Rehman, while sharing some key initiatives of her ministry with the participants, said, “Under ICT for Girls project we are establishing 150 computer labs in women empowerment centres to enable girls to learn latest computer skills of coding and computing.”
The establishment of the first state of the art IT Park in Islamabad was in the offing, she said, adding that loan agreement with Korean Exim Bank would be signed within this year and two more IT parks would be built in Lahore and Karachi very soon.
“In our e-office replication module, we have trained five thousand government officials through NITB. Our IT export has crossed $2.7 billion and we have targeted to take it up to six billion in the next two years,” the minister said.
She stressed upon the industry to bring their foreign remittances under the specific State Bank six-digit code so that an accurate picture of the voluminous IT exports could be reflected in the central bank’s record too.
The ministry, in continuation of its efforts of inclusivity and outreach to all relevant stakeholders, further deliberated this draft document in multiple focused group sessions with researchers from prime academic institutions, high ranking IT experts, civil society, experienced government decision makers, digital and Internet service providers as well as other associated stakeholders.
The key features of the new National IT Policy document would be sectoral digitization, big data, data analytics, entrepreneurship, Internet of Things (IoT), e-commerce, e-agriculture, and software export, etc. It was being expected that the National IT Policy 2016 would be submitted to the ECC within the next six weeks for approval.