Chief Guest for the event was Dr. Muhammad Yasin, Chairman, Pakistan Telecom Authority.
Other guests included Dr. Imtinan Elahi Qureshi, Executive Director, COMSATS, Mr. Parvez Ahmed Butt, Founding Executive Director COMSATS, and customers and employees of CIS.
Chief Executive Officer CIS, Mr. Asim Shahryar Husain highlighted the achievements of CIS during 2011 including upgradation of data center and training center, new offices in Karachi, Peshawar, and Lahore, and launching of seven new product brands.
He said that CIS is a diversified ISP offering seven different services mainly to government organizations and corporate customers.
Chairman PTA, Dr. Muhammad Yasin, congratulated CIS on completing its fifteen years of Internet operations in Pakistan. He said that whereas the mobile market has grown rapidly in Pakistan, the broadband market has not shown the same growth because computing devices are still expensive for lower masses. Hence, to trigger broadband growth in Pakistan, companies should offer cheaper computers and there should be no taxes on computers either.
He said that whereas ecommerce has become a reality in many countries, online buying is still not enabled on many Pakistani portals because of lack of an online payment gateway and legislation protecting against misusage of credit cards online in Pakistan.
He said that instead of focusing on tariffs, ISPs should market features and benefits of broadband to increase broadband penetration in Pakistan. His address was followed by a shield distribution ceremony for all of the speakers.
The seminar ended with a cake cutting ceremony followed by lunch.
