‘Muslim states need to utilise modern IT skills’
Thursday, August 14, 2008 14:01LAHORE: Lack of a proper communications system and non-utilisation of modern skills and equipment in the field of information technology is the biggest challenge being faced by the Muslim world.
“Dependency on foreign communications networks and lack of achievement in modern technology and advanced scientific knowledge did not allow it to make a breakthrough in the global arena.”
This was the crux of speeches delivered at the inaugural session of ‘LCCI-OIC Telecom and IT Conference & Expo’ at the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Tuesday.
Speakers including Provincial Minister for Excise and Taxation Mujtaba Shujaur Rehman, LCCI President Mohammad Ali Mian, Iranian Consul General in Lahore Saeed Kharazi, President Institute of Telecommunications Engineers Mian Mohammad Javed, SMEDA CEO Shahid Rashid and Chairman Standing Committee on OIC Mian Fazal Ahmad spoke on the importance of telecommunications network in today’s world.
The speakers were of the view that Muslims represented one-fourth of the world’s population, possessed 70 per cent of world’s energy resources and 40 per cent of global availability of raw materials, but the collective OIC share in global trade was 6 to 7 per cent only. Human development indicators were among the lowest in the world. In today’s globalised world, economic strength determines the status and position of a bloc or a country in the comity of nations.
They said they had made little progress politically or economically. The Islamic Development Bank, the financial wing of the OIC created to promote economic cooperation between Muslim states, had kept a low profile. The IDB should not only proactively promote major infrastructure projects such as telecoms and IT but also provide funding in that regard.
They said the idea of a real Islamic common market, especially with regard to the telecoms industry, had always been appealing to Muslims all over the world. Although religion is a common bond among 57 member states of the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC), there are several missing links in the way of effective and adequate economic cooperation between them.
Nowadays, communications plays a vital role in the confidence-building process among all nations and governments and therefore one of the prime responsibilities of all Islamic states in the present milieu is to encourage public sector to conduct research and make investment in the field of IT as much as possible.
Provincial Minister for Excise and Taxation Mujtaba Shujaur Rehman highlighted the role of Punjab government in the promotion of information technology in the province. He said all necessary steps were being taken in that regard.
Iranian Consul General Saeed Kharazi, in his address, said during the last few years some of the developing countries in the Muslim world, including Iran and Pakistan, had made efforts to achieve viable success in the field of IT, which was still continuing.
Undoubtedly, he said, these countries had made significant progress and development in that direction and fortunately one of the biggest areas where they had focused their attention for maximum cooperation during recent years was information technology. They both could play an important role in promoting relations among Muslim nations and other countries of this region while squeezing the communications gap possibly through mutual cooperation and investment.
