Pakistan to launch 5G technology by July next year: IT minister

KARACHI: Federal Minister for IT and Communication Syed Aminul Haque on Thursday said that the manufacturing of smartphones had been started in Pakistan while the 5G technology would be launched in the country by July 2023.

“Our effort is to make access to technology possible for people in every part of the country. As compared to the exports of 43 other ministries of Pakistan, the highest increase in exports has occurred in the IT and telecommunication sector. The exports of other ministries have increased by two to three percent only, while exports of information telecommunication and telecommunication have increased by 47.44 percent.”

These views were expressed by the Federal Minister for IT and Communication. He was the chief guest at the UBIT Career Fest 2022 organised by the Department of Computer Science, University of Karachi. The event was held at the UBIT Garden in which more than 30 software houses participated and short-listed candidates after conducting tests and interviews.

The minister mentioned that future needs could be met with the cooperation of IT industries and universities. He shared that in the year 2019-20, $75 million was allocated for the start-ups whereas the next year the amount was increased to $373 million.

The minister acknowledged that a large number of female students were enrolled in computer science programmes at various universities and said that he was glad to see their role in this regard. He informed the audience that there was no sign of corruption in the Ministry of IT and Communication and that whoever was found involved in corruption will not remain in the ministry.

“When I took over the ministry, our exports were 1.4 billion dollars and today it increased to 2.6 billion dollars while our target is 5 billion dollars.” On this occasion, the KU Vice Chancellor Professor Dr Khalid Mahmood-Iraqi said that universities are usually the center of developing creative thinking, innovation, and research. “There is no lack of intelligence and creative thinking among our youth, but it is necessary to support them and provide facilities to implement their creative thinking and creations.”

Earlier, the Chairman of the Department of Computer Science, Dr Nadeem Mahmood, shed light on the career fest and shared its aims and objectives.