KARACHI: Discussing how digital technologies are transforming developing economies and the way forward for Pakistan, speakers at a symposium held on Saturday at a local hotel urged the government to allocate appropriate budgetary allocation to implement its digital policy.

The speakers at the 14th symposium of the Pakistan Academy of Engineering titled ‘Preparing for our digital economy’ also identified areas for research and underscored the need for transparency in data.

In his welcome address, Dr Engineer Jameel Ahmad spoke about the gaps in Pakistan’s response to the use of emerging digital technologies, regretting that Pakistan did not rank high in important global indices of cyber security and business-to-consumer e-commerce.

“In order to digitise economy, the government needs to support the components of its digital policy with appropriate allocation of resou­rces,” he said.

The ministry of information technology, he pointed out, had developed a comprehensive role and responsibility matrix in the context of the digital policy. But, this ambitious plan needed to be transparently monitored.

Dr Muhammad Nouman Durrani and Dr Nadeem Kafi Khan representing the Fast National University of Computer and Emerging Sciences (NUCES) jointly delivered a presentation on the role of big data and cloud in digital economy. They emphasised that data must be cleaned, secured, vetted for compliance and continuously maintained.

Dr Jawwad Shamsi, director at the NUCES Fast Karachi, highlighted various aspects of Internet of Things. He identified security, privacy, network infrastructure, scalability and energy as key research issues.

Dr Rameez Khalid of Institute of Business Admin­ist­ration (IBA), Karachi, shared a research highlighting how technology could help optimise China-Paki­stan Economic Corridor’s routes.

In his presentation on artificial intelligence, Dr Sajjad Haider, a professor at the faculty of computer science, IBA, Karachi, gave an insight into the impact and implications of artificial intelligence and data analytics on businesses and the job market.

Published in Dawn, July 29th, 2019