Experts discuss Pakistan’s digital future

Islamabad : Prominent players in the local digital industry held a lively and thought-provoking panel discussion on Pakistan’s digital future at the Serena Hotel here.

The event titled ‘Reimagine our Digital Future – Preparing to thrive or survive?’ and held as part of Raabta, Serena Hotel's public diplomacy initiative meant to create awareness among diverse groups and networks on critical aspects of socially significant fields such as the economy, health and education.

The panelists discussed the challenges facing the local digital economy in face of its rapid expansion, and the challenges and opportunities this brings in terms of innovation, governance, job market, cyber risks, regulation and ease of doing business.

Raabta curator Sidra Iqbal said the focus of the event was on the potential benefits and costs arising from global digital technology changes and, importantly, anticipation of public policy solutions to emerging problems that would shape the future of society and the economy for generations to come.

“Change can come within a generation if managed properly, rather than waiting for millennia. We are asking if the policymakers going to be reactive to the digital revolution or take the bull by the horn and prepare an environment for the digital economy to thrive,” she said.

The keynote speaker at the event was head of the prime minister's 'Digital Pakistan' initiative Tania Aidrus, who spoke about the five pillars that form the cornerstone of the Government’s digital policy which include access and connectivity, digital infrastructure, e-government and digital skilling.

She said the response to the PM’s digital initiative was overwhelmingly good and it felt like a movement already.

"A lot is happening in the digital arena but it’s important to keep the end view in sight and take a strategic approach. Efforts at provincial and federal levels have to be synchronised to achieve the objectives on a broader scale," she said.

She said the internet was a democratising force and digital technologies allowed equitable access to knowledge provided the affordability of digital infrastructure was enabled and commodities like the internet were not taxed as a luxury item.

Tania Aidrus compared 35 per cent internet penetration in Pakistan with 80 per cent in other developing countries like Myanmar and said Pakistani policymakers needed to ensure that smartphones and internet are more affordable and accessible especially in rural areas.

The panel included prominent figures of the local digital landscape including general manager of Careem Zeeshan Hasib Baig, Daraz.pk managing director Ehsan Saya, Foodpanda CEO Nauman Sikandar Mirza, Chief Corporate and Enterprise Officer of Jazz Ali Naseer, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Information Technology Board MD Dr. Shahbaz Khan and Chief Business Support Officer of the U Microfinance Bank Sharmeen Niaz.

Careem Pakistan's Zeeshan Hasib Baig said his ride-hailing company had enabled 500,000 jobs which shows that going digital won't take away jobs as some feared but it would rather change the way people worked and would make it more efficient with a focus on better quality leading to productivity gains.

He said digital companies like Careem were improving livelihoods and were allowing females much better mobility for work and leisure.

About the challenges facing the digital sector, Zeeshan Baig said the industry growth rates are encouraging but the will of execution needs to be there including from the bureaucracy and regulatory authorities.

He said that decentralization of provinces brings its own challenges for countrywide businesses like Careem, so the government needs to improve ease of doing business and regulatory policies.

Ali Naseer of Jazz, Pakistan's leading telecom service provider, called for 'changing the lens of how we look at things' and said there should a paradigm shift in our traditional processes to allow for digital to be effective lest we become redundant.

“Whilst we have 3G/4G broadband license since 2014 but less than 40% of the population is connected on broadband currently which is a travesty. Out of the 76 million people who do use it, more than 96% do so on their cellphones. This number could have been 170 million plus if all registered cellphones were subscribed to the network but due to weaknesses in the licensing regime and internal challenges this has not happened,” he said.

He said if cost of handsets were reduced, especially the entry level smartphones then we could see a rapid expansion of mobile broadband networks. Nauman Sikander Mirza of Foodpanda Pakistan, a food delivery service, said that Pakistan’s digital

Serena Hotels CEO Aziz Boolani thanked the esteemed panelists for making themselves available for the event and said the Serena Hotels promoted and supported sports, adventure tourism, culture and dialogue through various diplomacy initiatives.