Day: January 14, 2022

The National Assembly has passed the National Information Technology Board (NITB) Bill, which would not only enable the Board to harness the latest solutions ICT’s have to offer but would also induct and mainstream these technologies in the processes of the federal government while promoting the integration of digital technologies across the country.

Federal Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunication moved the NITB bill in the national assembly that was passed with a majority.

Ministry of IT welcomed the development stating it will promote and accelerate the process of digitization including e-governance in a transparent and effective manner.

The Bill was presented by the Federal Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunication Syed Amin Ul Haque on Thursday in the National Assembly, which was passed with a majority of votes.

Talking to ProPakistani, the Minister for IT and Telecom said that the Government of Pakistan gives high priority to the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector as an enabler of socio-economic development.

The core objective of the establishment of the National Information Technology Board in 2014, through the merger of Pakistan Computer Bureau (PCB) and Electronic Government Directorate, was to create an organization with the technical capacity to promote and integrate ICT programs across the Federal Government.

However, its existing structure (as an attached department) hampers its ability to harness the latest technical expertise, skill sets, and work experience required to deliver on its mandate. The mandate in itself has been long due for reconsideration as well, keeping in view the evolving nature of ICT technologies.

The reorganization of the NITB (as an autonomous body) would not only enable harnessing the latest solutions ICTs have to offer but would also induct and mainstream these technologies in the process of the Federal Government while promoting the integration of digital technologies across the country

It is expedient to provide for the establishment of the National Information Technology Board for e-governance across the country in line with the vision and policy of the Federal Government to serve the public in a more effective and efficient manner through due advisories and consultancies and provision of e-governance software applications to Federal Ministries and divisions including their attached departments, subordinate offices, and autonomous bodies so as to focus on cross-cutting e-governance applications and initiatives that can be replicated across multiple public organizations for better government to government and government to Citizens services and communication, and for matters connected therewith and ancillary thereto?

The composition of the Board will consist on

a. Federal Minister of the division Concerned (Chairman)

b. Secretary of the division concerned (Member ex-officio)

c. Secretary, Finance Division (Member ex-officio)

d. Secretary of the division to which business of Science and Technology Stands allocated (Member ex-officio)

The CEO (NITB) shall be answerable to the Board for all administrative, fiscal, and Technical matters of the Board. The Board may delegate such administrative and financial powers to the CEO for carrying out day-to-day affairs of the Board as it deems necessary.

The Ministry of Information and Technology had earlier asked the federal cabinet to issue an executive order for running the affairs of the National Information and Technology Board (NITB). The NITB has already been declared an autonomous body by the Cabinet. However, the NITB Ordinance lapsed on April 19, 2020, whereas the bill was pending legislation.

In the interim period, legal cover for NITB’s continuation as an autonomous body with an independent board was required through an executive order.

The NITB is providing e-governance services to all Federal Government divisions and departments. These include government to government services, government to business services, government to citizen services, and government to employees services.

In addition to this, the NITB is also responsible for developing standards for ICT services, cyber security, ICT procurement, IT capacity building of federal government employees, building collaborative platforms, and also the provision of consultancy services to federal government divisions on governance.

The federal minister for information and telecommunication in his statement said that the government of Pakistan gives priority to the information and communication technology sector as an enabler of socio-economic development.

He said the core objective of the establishment of the National Information Technology Board in 2014, through the merger of Pakistan Computer Bureau and Electronic Government Directorate was to create an organization with the technical capacity to promote and integrate ICT programs across the federal government. However, its existing structure hampers its ability to harness the latest technical expertise, skill sets, and work experience required to deliver on its mandate. The mandate in itself has been long for reconsideration as well, keeping in view the evolving nature of ICT technologies.

Syed Amin Ul Haque said through this act, the reorganization of the NITB would not only enable harnessing the latest solutions ICT’s have to offer but would also induct and mainstream these technologies in the process of the federal government while promoting the integration of digital technologies across the country.

National IT Board Act 2021 states that it is expedient to provide for the establishment of National Information Technology Board for e-governance across the country, in line with the vision and policy of the federal government, to serve the public in a more effective and efficient manner through due advisories and consultants and provision of e-governance software application to federal ministries, and divisions including their attached departments, subordinate offices, and autonomous bodies so as to focus on cross-cutting e-governance applications and initiatives that can be replicated across multiple public organizations for better government to government and government to citizen services and communication and for matters connected therewith and ancillary.

According to NITB ACT 2021, the Federal Minister of the concerned division will be chairman of the board, whereas the finance secretary, secretary of the concerned division will be ex-officio members of the board. Secretary of the division to which business of ex-officio science and technology stand allocated will also be a member of the board.

The CEO NITB shall be answerable to the board for all administrative, financial, and technical matters of the organization. Board is empowered to delegate administrative and financial powers to CEO for carrying out day to day affairs of the organization as it deems necessary.

The NITB aims to address the operational challenges of all government departments and Ministries. NITB specializes in key automation, design, development, and implementation of robust IT technologies to promote the e-governance culture in all public departments and holistically develop plans, technologies, and infrastructures to boost the performance of the public sector.

Source: Pro Pakistani

Banks’ loans to the private sector dropped from 5.3 percent of GDP to 1.2 percent in the last 20 years, as per the World Bank (WB) data showing credit trends from 2001 to 2020.

The WB is busy streamlining a picture of the current situation where the US dollar sells at around Rs. 180. The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has provided the relevant data on 2020-21 credit provision from the banking sector while the Ministry of Finance is firming up figures on this count for the July-December period of 2021.

The private loans disbursed in 2001 at 5.3 percent of the GDP helped the business community purchase dollar at Rs. 67-77 while the current rate of dollar stands at Rs. 178. The loan volume that was slashed to 1.2 percent of the GDP leaves investors in dire want of liquidity for business and equity for acquiring bank credit, according to market players.

This has happened in a financial year when the growth of the GDP slid from four percent to three percent and the Sales Tax rate climbed from an average of 12 percent to 17 percent.

The volume of the non-performing loans in this period has also increased from nine percent of the GDP to 9.1 percent, which is deterring the banking sector from extending credit on easy terms. The feasibility conditions for acquiring credit have been toughened and discourage equity-building and investment trends in the innovation-driven sectors.

The anti-investment environment leaves the large and medium scale investors to the restricted option of dealing in a safer and smaller-volume business activity like sale-purchase of gold, dollar, attractive property deals, and stocks that offer lower but safer gains.

Sources from the Ministry of Finance said that the most critical sectors like producing an export surplus of competitive quality and using the proceeds in foreign exchange for enhancing the operation of production lines remain ignored in this environment.

They added that this discouraging trend has been preventing new investors from engaging in the newly launched Public-Private Partnership deals for beefing up the state infrastructure financed at an average of over 500 billion rupees per annum during the past two decades.

They also pointed out that the credit slash of the private sector has also happened during these two decades on account of a growing policy rate from four percent to the current 8.5 percent. Only the government could avail of bank credit at the commercial and non-commercial loans at this rate of profit, which resulted in a situation where the private sector could neither acquire credit for their wholly-owned business nor for projects under the Public-Private Partnership regulations.

Source: Pro Pakistani

Pakistan’s leading doctor booking and teleconsultation platform, Oladoc, has raised $1.8 million as part of its Pre-Series A round.

The round was led by Sarmayacar Ventures along with participation from Doha Tech Angels and other angel investors. Although the round was closed in 2021, the official confirmation has been made today.

Speaking on the raise, co-founder and CEO of Oladoc, Abid Zuberi, said,

Oladoc is on a mission to empower patients by making healthcare accessible, transparent, and affordable for the masses. We have seen phenomenal growth in the last 12 months and with the fresh funding round, aim to evolve into a digital health mall that serves patients’ needs across the complete life cycle. Oladoc plans to scale its current value proposition along with bringing in seasoned C-level leadership to the team, to help scale the organization faster.

Rabeel Warraich, the founder and CEO at Sarmayacar, said,

We are excited to partner with oladoc on their journey to provide quality healthcare to everyone in Pakistan. Oladoc’s team has demonstrated strong on-the-ground execution, helping establish Oladoc as the No.1 Doctor booking platform in Pakistan. We look forward to working with the founders to accelerate Oladoc’s growth and unlock the full market potential.

Founded in 2016 by Abid and Arif Zuberi, Oladoc is Pakistan’s leading doctor booking platform with a network of 8,000 doctors spread across 10 cities. The platform puts the power in the hands of patients (vs doctors) by giving them the ability to search, book, rate, and review healthcare providers.

In addition, the platform also provides its users the ability to order lab tests as well as save their medical history in the application. Oladoc has served more than 15 million users in the last 3 years and currently has more than 300,000 verified patient reviews online.

Source: Pro Pakistani