PSEB has convened a high-level Consultative Session as part of the Prime Minister’s initiative to develop a Shenzhen-inspired Information and Communication Technology Education and Training Roadmap for Pakistan, with the session chaired by Federal Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunication Shaza Khawaja and bringing together senior officials and stakeholders from across the public and private sectors to shape a nationally aligned strategy for Pakistan’s digital talent development.
The session was attended by Ammar Naqvi, Special Secretary at the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication, Saima Ahad, Joint Secretary for Development, Asfand Yar Khan, Member for Digital and Emerging Technology, and Dr. Henna Karamat Durrani, Chief Skills Development Officer at PSEB. Wider participation included Syeda Amnah Batool, Member of the National Assembly and Focal Person for the Prime Minister Youth Programme, Ahmed Bilal Masud, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Huawei Pakistan, and senior representatives from the Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training, the Higher Education Commission, the National Vocational and Technical Training Commission, the Federal Directorate of Education, the Pakistan Institute of Education, Ignite National Technology Fund, the Prime Minister Youth Programme, PASHA, the Higher Education Department of Punjab, and the Archives and Libraries Department of the Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The Shenzhen reference in the initiative’s framing is deliberate and significant. Shenzhen’s transformation from a fishing village into one of the world’s leading technology manufacturing and innovation hubs within four decades is widely studied as a model of how concentrated investment in technology education, industrial clusters, and public-private collaboration can produce disproportionate economic outcomes. The Prime Minister’s decision to anchor Pakistan’s ICT education roadmap in that reference signals an ambition to pursue a similarly structured and ecosystem-oriented approach to building technology talent rather than incremental adjustments to existing curricula and training programmes.
Recommendations gathered from participants across the session will be incorporated into a final roadmap covering information and communication technology education, digital talent development, industry-academia collaboration, and the institutional reforms needed to build a future-ready technology skills ecosystem aligned with global best practices and Pakistan’s digital transformation objectives. The completed roadmap will be presented to the Prime Minister for consideration and implementation, with the breadth of institutional representation at the consultative stage designed to ensure the final document reflects the perspectives of every major stakeholder in Pakistan’s education, technology, and workforce development landscape.
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