ISLAMABAD: Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunication Syed Aminul Haque on Monday said woman empowerment rested on bridging the digital divide between urban and rural areas of the country.

“The government was committed to ending this divide and effective measures were being taken for digitalisation in the country,” he said.

The IT minister was addressing the inaugural ceremony of Pakistan-ITU Digital Inclusion Week 2022 and announced that his ministry was taking every possible step for better digital future.

The two-day event is aimed at raising awareness of the importance of mainstreaming digital inclusion in Pakistan in addressing the digital divide particularly among people in vulnerable situations such as girls, children, and person with disabilities.

Syed Aminul Haque said that it was the top most priority of the government to empower women, and steps being taken to equip youth with digital skills is helpful in this regard.

He noted that the digital revolution characterised by artificial intelligence, big data, cloud computing and mobile robotics and many more such areas which were previously considered the technologies of the future, have now become the need of the time.

He said the government offered thanks to International Telecommunication Union (ITU) for their splendid support for all the countries of the world in general and for Pakistan in particular, in the areas of women empowerment, Information Communications Technology (ICT) Accessibility and for Child Online protection.

Mr Haq said the ministry’s ICT for girls project was an important initiative to empower woman.

He said work on number of projects is going on for provision of telecom services in far-flung areas of the country, adding that the IT ministry had formulated the National ICT Council for Persons with disabilities with the aim to support the special people with assistive technologies and make them the earning members.

He said cooperation between ITU member countries regarding digital transformation is vital.

Published in Dawn, December 13th, 2022