Digital Youth Summit pulls crowd on second day

PESHAWAR: Hundreds of people visited the fifth edition of the Digital Youth Summit on the second day of the event here on Saturday.

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Information Technology Board had organised the event in collaboration with the Jang/Geo group. It was attended by local and international experts, students and youth entrepreneurs from across the country.

The experts discussed the importance of technology in every sphere of life. They guided the youth on how to better utilise technology for launching startups. Dr Umar Saif, chief digital officer of the Jang/Geo group and Chief Investment Officer of Khudi Ventures was the keynote speaker.

Roy Tan, Politics and Government Outreach Manager for Asia-Pacific at the Facebook, explained how Facebook was helping governments and citizens to connect with each other in Asia. Managing Partner and Head of Deloitte Data, Bilal Khan highlighted the importance of AI, Big Data and Economic Growth and discussed the possibilities of public and private sectors collaboration.

Panel discussions were also held on several topics, including women entrepreneurship in Pakistan, opportunities in digital payments and how technology and local government can promote tourism.

Stalls were also set up at the venue in which youth took keen interest. One of the stalls was arranged by a group of youth who teach science to the Pashto speaking youth. Their YouTube channel, Octopus, upload science lessons for students.

“Octopus makes easy-to-understand and fun science videos in a local language for the Pashto speaking people. While focusing on KP Government text books, we have covered 9th grade Biology book this year overcoming the biggest educational barrier—language,” their brochure reads. The representatives at the stall of the Precision Medicine Lab were briefing the participants about their objectives. They claimed that the lab was the first of its kind in Pakistan and was established to allow data analysts and deep learning experts to work very closely with biologists, geneticists and clinicians and establish Pakistan’s first genomics database that will set the stage for larger, more concerted efforts in whole genome sequencing and precision medicine.

A participant of the summit Dr Inamul Haq told The News that students and youth from underdeveloped area were getting ideas and motivation from the event. He said the summit had provided an opportunity to the youth to interact with people who have achieved success in their respective fields.

Abdullah, a student of Computer Science at a private university in Peshawar, appreciated the organisers of the event. He said that he got valuable tips for launching his startup in software after graduating next year. The fifth edition of the Digital Youth Summit started on Friday.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Minister for Local Government Shahram Khan Tarakai, Tourism, Youth and Sports Minister Atif Khan, Finance Minister Taimur Saleem Jhagra, representatives of the World Bank and IT experts also attended the inaugural ceremony of the three-day event. Speaking on the occasion, Minister for Local Government Shahram Khan Tarakai said that the projects of the provincial government have started yielding results.

He said that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was a good market for information technology. The minister appreciated the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Information Technology Board for organising the successful summit.