Federal Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunication Shaza Fatima Khawaja held a series of meetings with global leaders and policymakers on the sidelines of the Global Dialogue on AI Governance in Geneva, as part of the broader Geneva Digital Week taking place alongside the World Summit on the Information Society Forum and the International Telecommunication Union’s AI for Good Global Summit. The minister described the discussions as productive, noting a shared commitment among participating countries toward international collaboration on digital transformation.
During her engagements, the minister met with Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Communications and Information Technology Abdullah Alswaha, United Nations Under Secretary General for Policy Guy Ryder, and Sri Lanka’s Chief Advisor to the President on the Digital Economy Hans Wijayasuriya. She also held discussions with Egypt’s Deputy Minister for Digital Transformation Mahmoud Badawi, United Nations Under Secretary General and Special Envoy for Digital and Emerging Technologies Amandeep Gill, Kazakhstan’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Development Zhaslan Madiyev, and Poland’s Deputy Prime Minister Krzysztof Gawkowski. The meetings covered a wide range of topics including international cooperation on AI policy, digital governance frameworks, digital public infrastructure, and emerging technologies.
Among the most notable outcomes from the visit was a meeting with her Saudi counterpart, during which the two ministers agreed to accelerate efforts to expand their bilateral digital corridor by laying new submarine cables and building out terrestrial connectivity networks between the two countries. Speaking about the discussions, the minister said the conversation focused on how the two countries could add value to each other’s technology ecosystems and share policy experiences, noting that Saudi Arabia’s progress on digital connectivity offered useful lessons given the similar challenges Pakistan continues to face in expanding its own infrastructure. She added that the two sides also discussed advancing submarine routes, terrestrial connections, and alternate pathways to strengthen data connectivity between the two countries, along with deeper collaboration between their respective private sectors.
The minister’s participation in Geneva Digital Week comes as Pakistan continues to position its information technology sector for growth on the international stage, with the country’s IT exports reaching 4.2 billion dollars in the first eleven months of the last fiscal year, reflecting a 20 percent increase compared to the previous year. The Global Dialogue on AI Governance, held for the first time this year, brought together representatives from all United Nations member states to discuss international approaches to regulating and governing artificial intelligence, with the minister expressing appreciation to the United Nations Office for Digital and Emerging Technologies and the International Telecommunication Union for organising the summit. She noted that Geneva has once again proven to be a valuable platform for dialogue and consensus building on the future of the global digital landscape, adding that the partnerships formed during the week are expected to play a role in advancing secure and inclusive digital cooperation going forward.
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