President of Pakistan Dr. Arif Alvi recently attended the inaugural National Broadband Network Forum jointly organized by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) and Huawei Technologies Pakistan (Huawei Pakistan). President Alvi used the opportunity to thank Huawei for its contribution to Pakistan’s digital development. He also urged the country to adopt a “proactive and marketable approach” to improve its digital capabilities and ensure access of its citizens to the “information highway” and communication services.
In his address, President Alvi said the sustained development of Pakistan was linked to extensive digitalization of all sectors, particularly education and health.
“The epidemic has multiplied the importance of broadband services and new technologies, making it imperative to accelerate the construction of broadband,” said President Alvi.
The President commended the PTA and Huawei Pakistan for their contributions to Pakistan’s national digitalization. The joint holding of this forum will help promote constructive dialogue on broadband expansion and accelerate the rollout of fiber-optic and 5G services in Pakistan, he noted.
Participants in Pakistan National Broadband Network Forum included Major-General Amir Azim Bajwa, Chairman of Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, Muhammad Soo Haier Rajput, Federal Secretary of the Ministry of IT and Telecommunication, and other representatives from major mobile and fixed network operators. Lu Libo, President of Huawei Network Marketing Solution Sales, and Meng Qiang, CEO of Huawei Pakistan, also attended the forum.
Huawei believes that information and communications technologies can accelerate the development of education and healthcare. With global partners including UNESCO, Huawei is working to provide people with equal access to high-quality education globally. Since 1998, Huawei Pakistan has made full use of its technical expertise to continuously build Pakistan’s ICT talent ecosystem. In May 2021, President Alvi witnessed the launch of an ICT training program co-organized by Huawei and Pakistan’s Ministry of IT and Telecommunication, which aims to enhance digital skills of civil servants. Meanwhile, Huawei has cooperated with more than 60 local universities in the country to set up ICT academies, training about 40,000 young students. In addition, Huawei donated a remote video service system to Pakistan’s pandemic control headquarters in early 2020 to support the fight against COVID-19.
