Digital Youth Summit is joint initiative of KP-ITB and World Bank which is powered by Jazz
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa unveiled its Digital Strategy during the fourth Digital Youth Summit (DYS) 2017 to empower regional youth with skills, access, and markets exposure to opportunities in the digital economy.
The Digital Youth Summit (DYS) is a technology conference and startup expo that takes place annually in Peshawar, Pakistan since 2014.
The summit aims to bring together “the next generation of digital innovators in Pakistan”. The summit therefore draws participants from the private sector, investors, government, civil society, youth groups and academia.
The three-day summit is a joint initiative of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Information Technology Board (K-PITB) and the World Bank along with key local community and academic partners. DYS 2017 is organized around three key issue areas: Digital Employment, Tech Entrepreneurship and Innovation.
Managing Director K-PITB, Dr Shahbaz Khan said while speaking on inaugural ceremony, “K-P takes digital opportunities for our people very seriously and want to be a leader in technology. This strategy, through sound policies and reforms, will set a roadmap for us and we shall announce initiatives to support this over the next few days.”
“The digital strategy encompasses inputs from a wide range of groups including government departments, the private sector, and organisations such as the World Bank, making it as relevant and robust as possible,” explained Dr Shahbaz.
The Country Director of World Bank, Patchamuthu Illangovan said that the global institution had assisted provincial government and K-PITB in developing the strategy to implement projects.
“Over 80 per cent of Pakistan’s population is offline. Closing this gap will create new job opportunities for the millions entering the labour force,” Illangovan added.
Aniqa Afzal Sandhu, chief digital officer of Jazz, said that not only locals but the country at large stands to benefit from such positive endeavours.
“Our country is ripe with talent,” she added
Moreover, National and international personalities and technologists including Chairman PTI Imran Khan, Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa Pervaiz Khattak, ALEXANDER FERGUSON (Senior Manager South Asia Region – World Bank) and many others were guest speakers at the summit.