In another major development Information Technology Minister Anusha Rahman Khan during her meeting at the US Mission to the United Nations praised the Global Connect Initiative being launched by the US to support growth of internet access and connectivity to more than 1.5 billion unconnected global citizens by 2020.
In an event organized by Under Secretary for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment Catherine Novelli on the sidelines of the High Level Meeting of the UN General Assembly in New York, the minister appreciated the programme and the role it is expected to play in the achievement of the targets set by the Sustainable development Goals of the UN, said a press release issued on Saturday.
Anusha Rahman highlighted the initiatives being pursued in Pakistan for connecting the underserved and unserved. The meeting was also attended by senior officials from Global corporations like Google, Microsoft and others.
Speaking on the occasion, the minister stressed the need for addressing all the components of the value chain in order for the initiatives like these to bridge the digital divide within and between nations. She termed the innovative use of development financing and particularly meaningful and adequate allocation of Universal Service Funds available to most countries, as an element of major importance to bring about universal global connectivity.
Equally important, however, she said were the community use computer hardware, local networking, and training software and citizen centric applications to take maximum utility of connectivity to these new targeted users which in most cases will be from truly marginalised communities. All stakeholders in governments, international financing agencies, private sector operators and civil society need to play their role to complete this value chain, she added.
Participants present during the meeting showed their commitment to major initiatives like the Global Connect and all other efforts of similar nature being undertaken by the stakeholders and pledged innovative solutions to bridge the connectivity and internet access gaps for its achievement of the mutually shared objectives of creating digital and knowledge economy for people worldwide. Under Secretary Novelli also laid down the future engagement roadmap for the initiative.
