What is essential for a Digital Pakistan Policy

A few days back I attended a focus group on Digital Pakistan Policy that will span over multiple disciplines including Human resource, innovation, entrepreneurship etc. Here are my thoughts on what’s essential to the policy and must be covered.

First and foremost Digital policy doesn’t mean IT or IT services alone. It has a much wider impact. For example content is a huge vertical that requires a lot of attention. The practice for inconsistent policies for the platforms must end. We need to see where the work is going, where the opportunities are. Simply put we attach much less value to it. This also includes other visual arts. One example is that a youngster like Jannat Mirza charges 20-30 times more than I can per hour. I have no shame in admitting it.

Strong industry academia linkages but before we do, we need to critically analyse what has been achieved so far on this front if we look back the past 12 years. The industry will keep complaining that the fresh grads don’t have a clue what’s being done in the industry. However we need to ask important questions. How much has the industry (which has been largely tax exempted) invested in training infrastructure in past 1 decade? If we are complaining now that there aren’t enough people who understand, AI,ML, data sciences IOT etc. shouldn’t we ask the industry that when these subjects were being taught they pressured academia into teaching android programming and web development? If industry will keep on chasing the need of the hour, we will always be playing catch up. To quote 

“We need to make sure that we are allowing students to be exposed to future technology and not reducing it to current—what a lot of people would like to say, “relevant” teaching.” -Founders at work

Before we talk about privacy and data protection we need to talk about data in Digital Governance. There is a dire need to connect government departments. Before we go on and on about Open APIs and publicly available data, the least we need to make sure is that data exchanges are safely happening between different government departments. We are no way near that and governance can’t be strengthens without it. 

We put a lot of focus on security with a lot less focus on information security. The data gets hacked far less in Pakistan than being leaked. There needs to be proper policies in place when it comes to Information security. Not undermining cybersecurity but if someone is going to screenshot or plug a usb to take data away, cybersecurity alone won’t do us any good (safe city cameras are an example of that).

In digital innovation policy startups need a seat on the table. The procurement laws need to be changed because the biggest platform for scaling something is public sector and young innovative businesses must have access to it. 

The biggest conversation in the past few years hasn’t been all the buzz words like block chain, AI, IOT that we hear. The biggest conversation has been Internet for the next Billion. We have a sizeable chunk in that billion that’s going online. This is the hardest to understand for most people who have been on internet for quite some time (in my case more than 2 decades) and take it for granted. The very definition of the word internet must be protected. When Facebooks of the world launch a bundle of sites and call them Free Internet, that must be resisted because once the definition of internet changes for the new users, the digital tyranny will begin. The internet provider’s significance has already been reduced due to infrastructure becoming a commodity and lack of innovation in mediums. These providers will exercise their dominance by bifurcating the medium (the internet connection) and restrictions/pricing different destinations differently. This will also happen due to the provider lacking the skills to spawn destinations. Net Neutrality is super important and must be protected at all cost.

Consistent policies are also needed on new innovations in mediums. Starlink is an example. You can book it for Pakistan but you never know a ban will be imposed on it resulting in your equipment being stuck in customs. 

Which brings us to the worst of all practices, aversion to the cutting edge. Policies that force you to obtain NOCs for 3D printers and other new innovations. When you deprive people of access, you essentially push the entire sector behind and then starts the race of playing catch up. No innovation can occur without exposure to the cutting edge. Education and Exposure go hand in hand , one alone can’t accomplish anything.

On similar note dedicated attention is needed to foster innovation , we need to create more Makers spaces and open access to the existing ones. Infrastructure like PITAC and PCSIR must be accessible to innovators and should become a breeding ground of innovation. The crazy custom on small equipment and parts creates a mile long wall in front of the product innovators. We can’t do this without innovation of product front, services alone won’t cut it. 

To foster innovation government needs to start fund matching the private investment. Giving investors more confidence and help close the gap when it comes to lack of capital. Please don’t involve banks into it, that will be the death of it. 

First element of any digital policy should be universality of digital connection. We must not increase the digital divide which will translate into the income divide by ensuring access is across the country and price is affordable.

Incentivise digital medium usage (unlike what’s done right now in terms of extra charges on these services)

We need to also encourage investment in Cloud infrastructure and by that I mean real cloud infrastructure, not that one that requires a month to reserve a server. 

The list goes on and on, a digital policy is a big move but can easily become a missed opportunity if confined to technology parks and short term goals.