There is a need for IT more than ever, President Alvi

President Dr Arif Alvi has stressed on the need for IT education and has emphasized the educational institutions to focus on digital education as the country moved to the trending digitization and cyber security to overcome the challenges posed by novel coronavirus.

While speaking at the International Virtual Conference on Digitalization and Cyber Security organized by Virtual University of Pakistan, the president highlighted that there had been tremendous boom of IT graduates in the world and Pakistan, being a country with a large number of youth population, could fill the gap.

Also Read: 925 students, staff quarantined after coronavirus outbreak

The meeting was also chaired by Minister for IT and Telecommunications Syed Aminul Haq, Secretary IT Shoaib Siddiqui and Rector of Virtual University also IT experts from Pakistan and overseas who pondered on the modern posed challenges linked to the digitization and cyber security.

The president said Pakistan is evolving in the field of IT and it is lucky to have a close partnership between government and the private sector with both participating in the production of human resource through valuable education offering them chances and prospects in the progressing world.

He further said being non-resident sector, the IT sector has also created numerous opportunities for the women to work from home and generate income. Moreover, he said that though the COVID-19 pandemic has caused an academic and economic loss, it has concurrently hauled the world into a virtual domain generating vast opportunities for Pakistan and many other countries.

Also Read: Punjab govt provides detailed SOPs for schools

Focusing on the contemporary trends in the field of IT like faster communication, exponentially increased data storage, use of artificial intelligence and modern research in medical and drug, the presidents said all the contemporary developments are connected to each other.

“Once we have all these pathways and roads going to everywhere, there is an issue of security those pathways. Imagine there were two incidents of plane crash related to software. Imagine these softwares can be hijacked in all fields. We have seen happening it in hospitals…these matters are very important as far as governments are concerned,” the president stated.

He said with the improvement of communication technology, there is a requirement to secure data. He also said that Pakistan is competently safeguarding its enormous data related to NADRA, health and telecom sector against the cyber criminals.

“The risk involved in the hijacking of security are tremendous. It can lead to wars. Cyber espionage and cyber-attacks are already happening. There is phobia already building up in the world. Apps are being restricted, are being forced to be sold to reliable handlers… The governments are suspecting other governments for being involved in cyber espionage,” he said.

Also Read: At least 97,000 children in the U.S. tested positive since schools reopened in July

He said holding gains of several opportunities in health and IT sectors, the country will be able to accelerate and serve the world too.

He emphasized and commend how Pakistan has successfully handled the COVID-19 pandemic through technology and educational. He also called for utilizing the skills attained during anti-COVID attempts to disseminate the knowledge and prevention of diseases.

He further remarked that the government has a lot of plans to expand the technology sector and mentioned about the special task force which is created to holding e-poll for the overseas Pakistanis in pursuance of the Supreme Court directives.