Jang Economic Session

‘IT reforms bringing about change in all sectors’

By our correspondent

LAHORE: Information technology reforms are revolutionising the urban as well as rural life in Pakistan as economic benefits have been achieved in all sectors by focusing on information technology positively.

These views were expressed by experts in the Jang Economic Session on ‘Role of IT sector in national growth’. The panellists were Dr Umar Saif, Sohail Lashari, Khalid Paracha, Sajjad Syed, Anwar Kabir, and Faisal Warraich. The session was hosted by Sikandar Lodhi.

Dr Umar Saif said that IT was helping in business development, social media marketing, online money transfers, online shopping, and bloggers. This has made the IT sector trillion dollar economy where every year IT graduates are getting employment through outsourcing while focus on IT education can increase the national income by 50 percent annually, he believed. He said the Punjab government has taken several measures for free online licencing while reforms are required at federal as well as provincial levels. He said IT reforms were revolutionising the urban as well as rural life as the government has digitised the land record, police record, school monitoring and many other programmes. He said Pakistan IT sector has great potential which required special initiatives and investment.

Sohail Lashari said the last two decades were golden era of inventions in which the IT has played an important role. He said IT industry was emerging and by focusing it further ease could be created. He said along with numerous benefits of IT sector, cyber crime also emerged with it but awareness was given to avoid it.

Khalid Paracha said that IT was not only limited to information system rather a regular process of awareness, creation and dependence on it was growing in the modern era. He said 12 to 13 percent trade was now at one click due to IT besides making the education ease, correction in financial deals, and access of correct marketing data easily. He believed that the better results could be achieved by more focus on IT.

Sajjad Syed said that adoption of IT reduced cost of production of textile sector, improving designing while retail sector was largely benefited in which citizen services were provided at the lowest cost. He said IT was only source of social development while the government needed to focus on its growth. He called for increasing the dependence on IT sector in the global technology era.

Anwar Kabir said that economic benefits were achieved in Pakistan by focusing on IT sector positively. He said easy payment method was developed in the rural areas and home-based industries while the role of IT sector in progress in education and health sectors was also visible. He said the government needed to focus on IT sector for better governance, promotion of competition, improving in the standard of living and access to information.

Faisal Warraich said that access of information as well as new trend in businesses was promoted due to IT sector in Pakistan which also played important role in the economic growth and jobs creation for youths. He said new era is the era of modernisation when everyone has access to the world information through smart phones. He said Wikipedia was first time being launched in Urdu language in Pakistan. He called for incentives and investments for IT sector and people of this sector.