Digitization of the government began long before the pandemic but the latter has accelerated its transformation at an unprecedented speed. The goal is to provide services in a more productive, open, and cost-effective way; and digitization in silos at the ministerial and departmental levels has been in practice for years. However, it is time to explore the ‘whole of the government’ powered by emerging technologies for collective and collaborative transformations across the board.
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The President of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, Dr. Arif Alvi, thanked Tech Valley that “collaborated with Google to help our people to move to Google Cloud which is backed by machine learning and neural networks”.
He said that the upcoming new technologies like Quantum Computing will change the landscape of the digital era, which is a million times more efficient. He also stressed that Cloud is important because it provides ingredients including artificial intelligence, analytics, security, etc. Google’s cooperation in Education and the Railways is quite important, particularly for the transportation industry to address traffic management.
The President remarked:
If we keep making the smart decisions, it’s just a matter of time when Pakistan will be catapulted to this new era much faster than expected.
MD Public Sector Google Cloud Paul Wilson shared the industry expertise and experience that Google carries across the globe while successfully transforming the public sector using emerging technologies over Google Cloud.
The federal Minister for Information Technology and Telecom Syed Amin-ul-Haque congratulated Google and Tech Valley for the launching of the first Google CS training program in Pakistan. He remarked that teledensity has reached over 85 percent and continues to expand and that it is time to focus on the application layer and build a strong foundation for a data-driven government by adopting a data localization strategy for the public sector.
He stated,
Our mission is in-lined with the Prime Minister’s mandate of Digital Pakistan.
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The federal Minister for Education and Professional Training Shafqat Mehmood thanked Google and Tech Valley for leading the remarkable initiative of transforming schools under ICT to explore teaching resources through Google for Education to inspire creativity, encourage hands-on learning, and equip students with digital skills.
He stated that:
Cloud technology is absolutely essential and Pakistan is getting better at incorporating IT in governance. This is an exciting time, and I am excited about the opportunities that are available in the education sector.
He added that the Prime Minister’s vision of a Single Curriculum is currently in the execution phase and that it is time to have a unified robust technology platform to reshape the future of education in Pakistan.
While discussing the workforce of the future, he stated that this is the perfect time for Google to come forward and launch a national-level “Skill Program” for the youth, similar to the ones that Google had executed for the other countries in the region.
The federal Minister for Railways, Azam Khan Swati, emphasized the adoption of emerging technologies to run transparently and efficiently. He stated that digitalization is one of the top priorities for the railways and their future.
He also thanked Tech Valley that had come forward with the technology giant Google for “guiding us in adopting emerging technologies like cloud computing which helped me to see the light at the end of the tunnel”.
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The CEO of Tech Valley, Umar Farooq, said:
As citizens of this beautiful country, we feel socially responsible to pay back to our motherland by serving as a conduit between pioneer technology providers and the government for a collective transformation drive across the country. The presence of all the stakeholders and senior leadership from Google at today’s summit clearly reflects the commitment and assurance that we all believe in the Prime Minister’s vision of Digital Pakistan. Our team is extremely excited to work with the government organizations in this amazing journey of collective transformation.
