ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has become the first country in the Asia-Pacific region to implement the ‘smart village’ concept under which e-education and e-health services have been extended to a remote rural community of the capital.

“Pakistan is the first country to set up a smart village in the Asia Pacific region; similar projects will be launched in all provinces, Azad Kashmir (AJK) and Gilgit-Baltistan (GB),” Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunication Syed Aminul Haque said on Wednesday.

He was addressing the inauguration ceremony of the Gokina Smart Village project.

Gokina is a remote village on the Margalla Hills, bordering Hazara Division some 21km from the city centre.

The project is based on the concept of ‘Smart Island’ initiated by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in 2020. Through this project, education, health and other services are extended to small islands in the Pacific Ocean where providing facilities through physical means is difficult.

Syed Aminul Haque said the Gokina project was a milestone as it would directly benefit students and women of remote areas.

Due to its remoteness, there was no chemistry teacher for classes eight, nine and 10 in Government Girls High School, Gokina; in fact no teacher was willing to serve there. Similarly there was only one lady health visitor in the area as doctors too were not willing to be posted at the government dispensary there.

Speaking on the occasion, ITU Regional Director Atsuko Okuda lauded Pakistan for launching the ‘smart village’ project.

She said the initiative would bring benefits of digital transformation in sectors such as health, education and agriculture to the rural and remote communities.

The project was initiated by the Universal Service Fund (USF) and sponsored by Huawei Technologies Pakistan. The e-education provider is ‘Tele-Taleem’ while ‘Sehat Kahani’ is the e-health provider.

As the medical centre in Gokina has limited services, the lady hea8lth visitor of the area served as the focal person who connected with relevant doctors and medical specialists online. It was informed that around 70pc of the patients got relief through medication while only 30pc of the patients required further medical examination.

Published in Dawn, February 23rd, 2023