UK offers Pakistan help in cyber security

ISLAMABAD: The United Kingdom (UK) has offered Pakistan to assist in areas of cyber security for developing state of the art research centre to combat terrorism effectively.
“The UK and Pakistan have agreed to find ways and means to cooperate in areas of developing cyber security. Pakistan has sought technical expertise from the UK in this regard,” official sources confirmed to The News here on Thursday.
The cyber security has got immense importance to implement National Action Plan (NAP) to root out extremism and terrorism from the country. The UK is also facing threat of terrorism and they want to assist Pakistan to ensure cyber security for itself and other parts of the world including for Great Britain.
According to the Ministry of Information Technology (MoIT), Philip Barton, British High Commissioner to Pakistan, called on Minister of State for Information Technology Anusha Rahman on Thursday.
“We can collaborate in application development or other areas of common interest. We are going to establish a “Research and innovation centre” through ICT R&D Fund Company where we want to produce quality research of international standards with the collaboration of industry and academia. UK may join hands with us to make it work, the minister said.
The British High Commissioner agreed with the minister to formulate a “mutual working group” which will be comprising of high commission and ministry’s official. This working group will jointly work out the “priority areas” in ICT where; both the countries could collaborate and cooperate.
While referring to the recent visit of the British Minister for Cabinet Francis Maude to Pakistan and his subsequent meeting with the IT minister, the high commissioner said Fracis highly appreciated the vision and efforts of Pakistani government for the development of information communication technology (ICT) sector and expressed willingness to further cooperate and collaborate in areas of common interest in the ICT.
While expressing her views Anusha Rahman said it was a meaningful meeting with the British minister and we shared profound ideas related to the development of ICT in Pakistan. She said that Pakistan and UK enjoy strong cordial relations and UK government engagement with MOIT for enhancement of ICTs in Pakistan will further augment this bond. There are lot of opportunities and areas available in Pakistan, where we can collaborate effectively.
The minister added that ministry of IT is committed to deliver on PML-N manifesto for the betterment of the people of Pakistan in particular the welfare of masses living in underserved and un-served areas of the country by using information communication technologies.
Telecenters, technology parks, availability of left over spectrum, tech-city supporting start ups, are some of the key mile stones to realise this objective. The high commissioner appreciated the commitment of the government of Pakistan in putting the country on the path of technological advancement and assured the active support of his government and BHC in the key potential areas of cooperation for the development of ICT sector in Pakistan.