Federal Secretary Ministry of IT and Telecommunication Shoaib Ahmad Siddiqui presided over the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Telecom Foundation (TF) and Social Protection Resource Centre (SPRC) for providing social inclusion for the disabled, especially children, through technology and ICT-based solutions.
Federal Secretary Shoaib Ahmad Siddiqui, speaking at the event, said that the current government was assisting the IT industry through numerous digitization projects, research and innovation, software technology parks, subsidized bandwidth, international marketing, international certifications, internships, and training, and that it had a holistic strategy for achieving sustainable development goals.
The Secretary of State for Information Technology praised the new Telecom Foundation’s management for their success in reviving the organization over the last 18 months, assuring the Foundation of the Ministry’s continued support in its digital social welfare expansion initiatives.
Syed Zomma Mohiuddin, President & CEO of Telecom Foundation, said that this was one of many steps taken by the Foundation over the past year and a half, for the first time in its 30 year history, with the help of the MoITT, to allow it to completely contribute to the underprivileged sections of society, as well as the SDGs, through ICT and digital solutions.
The Telecom Foundation and SPRC’s initiative was directly in line with the government’s and the Ministry of IT and Telecommunications’ visions for a digital and welfare-based Pakistan. The benefits of a healthy life should be passed on to our society’s disabled children, who should have an equal right to a respectable and educated life.
Dr. Aaliya Khan, the CEO of the SPRC, said,
“As a leading think tank dedicated to promoting the universalization of social protection in Pakistan, the SPRC is delighted to partner with Telecom Foundation in enabling the social inclusion of the underprivileged and especially disabled sections of society through state-of-the-art ICT and technology-based solutions that will have long-term impact.”
Senior officials from the MoITT, Telecom Foundation, and SPRC were in attendance for the gathering, which ended with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the two organizations’ heads.
