Daily Times

With a booming tech-savvy population and a rapidly increasing interest in digital freelancing, Pakistan has risen through the ranks to become the third-largest contributor of technical manpower in the world.

According to the ILO report, Pakistan is now the world’s third-largest purveyor of technical manpower for online services, just behind Bangladesh and India.

It is really encouraging to note the country’s youth proving their abilities and capabilities online in software development and technology as well as other fields including translation and e-commerce.

Being the second biggest youngest population, the country indeed can, in the near future, become top ranking country for online services with the kind of interest shown and investment made by present government in Information and Communication Technology (ICT). The very policy is in line with the government’s election manifesto to provide ten million jobs to the youth. Given the scope of online services, there is no reason for the government not to achieve the target, thus silencing its opponents and critics which have been mocking it for setting such an ambitious target.

First and foremost is the government’s Digital Pakistan initiative which aims to provide a platform to the youth to become independent drivers of economic growth. Under the digital policy, it aims to increase the size of the country’s ICT industry to $ 20 billion dollars.

Secondly and most importantly, the government is greatly investing in the skill development of the youth through various initiatives to produce a market oriented skilled workforce. The DigisSkills Training Program (DSTP) has so far trained more than 1.2 million youth who are adding value to the IT sector.

At the federal level, the government last year launched a Rs 20 billion rupee program to train 500,000 youth in different modern fields including in advanced areas of technology such as artificial intelligence, robotics, and cloud computing.

Separately, the Punjab government is executing a skill development targeting to equip 875,000 youth with different modern skills that will enhance their online employability chances. The provincial government is also working to set up four technical universities which will impart education in different ICT fields.

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has also made major strides and formulated a strategy to bring the province into the digital age and improve technology related skills and governance. This has fostered hundreds of thousands of digital jobs for the youth besides helping in attracting investments in the field of technology.

Skills development really can play a major role in the alleviation of poverty, when carefully planned and implemented in the context of the available and emerging employment and income-generation opportunities. This multiplies many folds when the skills are acquired in the digital spheres. It not only widens the work opportunities but also opens up avenues for entrepreneurial ventures as well. If pursued with the required level of commitment and proactive approach, we are confident that results of the government’s digital and skills development policies will soon be visible and enable the country to also harvest the benefits of the fourth industrial revolution.