President Dr Arif Alvi has called for promoting knowledge-economy and digitalisation of government organisations to enhance the efficiency of work and service delivery. The president said this while talking to a delegation of Huawei, which led by Vice President of Huawei Middle East Region Li Xiangyu called on him on Monday. The President said that Pakistan is blessed with immense talent and resources and the government is making serious efforts to channelise this potential in the right direction. Li Xiangyu in his presentation informed that Huawei has contributed to Pakistan’s economy by providing 10,000 jobs and paying $120 million in taxes, besides spending $6 million to support disaster-relief efforts of the government. He said Huawei has contributed to Pakistan’s Information and Communication Technology talent by providing 10,000 certifications in 2020. He said Huawei would train over 1000 government employees to achieve the Digital Pakistan initiative. He apprised the meeting that government officials would be registered and enrolled for training programmes which would be conducted through Huawei experts. President Alvi appreciated the initiative of Huawei to provide training and ICT skills to the people of Pakistan. He asked the M/o IT&T to develop an action plan and set time lines for launching training programmes for the government employees to train them in fields like artificial intelligence, cloud technology, big data, blockchain, neural networks and communication technologies. He urged the M/o IT&T to come up with more innovative ideas and enhance collaboration with Huawei for early realisation of Digital Pakistan Initiative. The meeting was also attended by Secretary M/o Science and Technology Dr Arshad Mahmood, Secretary M/o Federal Education and Professional Training Farah Hamid, Additional Secretary M/o IT&T Ali Sher Mehsud, and other senior officials, while Chairman PM’s Task Force on Science and Technology Dr Atta-ur-Rehman attended the meeting via video link. Separately, President Alvi has, once again, appealed to the people to follow the directions of National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) regarding the standard operating procedures (SOPs) and maintaining safety in outdoor situations. In a tweet on Monday, the president said the same precautions are also required to be observed at mosques, Imambargahs and processions. “I continue to appeal to all Pakistanis to follow the directions of NCOC regarding SOPs and all outside gatherings. Bazaars are the most important, but directions are also for Masajid, Imambargahs, Taraveehs, Majalis & processions. Ulema carry a bigger burden to guide the people,” he tweeted.