Anusha Rahman inaugurates Mobilink Digital Innovation Lab

Lahore: In a development which is to further drive digitization in the country, Mobilink has inaugurated its Digital Innovation Lab, a collaborative space for supporting and accelerating key Digital Initiatives. Ms. Anusha Rahman, Minister of State for IT & Telecom was the chief guest at the ceremony, and expressed the government’s support for all such initiatives.

The Digital Innovation Lab is an innovation center where key internal stakeholders, industry professionals, thought leaders and Digital Entrepreneurs can utilize Mobilink’s expertise to create and explore innovative products and services in the Digital Space.

“The government steers the agenda of Digital Pakistan as a progressive member of growing global digital economy. For this purpose, we are continuously pooling in resources with the very responsive private sector to strengthen our digital foundation through effective public private partnerships. We appreciate the support being provided by our partners, such as Mobilink, to further Digital Pakistan agenda. We are working to connect the unconnected on apriority basis and all our endeavors with the industry are aligned to achieve our accelerated digitization objectives and for the revival of sustainable and inclusive growth, benefiting the citizens and overall economy,” said Anusha Rahman. While appreciating the renewed focus of the mobile industry on incorporating digital citizen based services into the future business strategy, the Minister added “The policy of MoIT fully aims at partnering with the industry players in bringing market innovation that impacts lives of our citizens delivering socio economic empowerment.”

“The success of any venture is linked to the socioeconomic success of the marketplace in which it operates. It is our priority to find ways to help drive an innovative, productive and high employment economy, where the communities of Pakistan can reap full benefits of our digitized services,” said Jeffrey Hedberg, President & CEO – Mobilink. “This Digital Innovation Lab will be the cornerstone of our initiatives to engage digital entrepreneurs, and industry innovators, in whatever capacity required, to speed up the provision of high quality digital solutions to our customers across the communities of Pakistan.”

He further added, “The progress we have made in the direction of a digital revolution, in the past three years, could not have been possible without the continuous support of the Ministry of IT and the Government of Pakistan.”

“New advancements in Digital Services open up limitless possibilities in Mobile Health, Payments, Education, Security, IoT and M2M, while driving rapid economic growth and job creation”, said Aamir Ibrahim, Deputy CEO & CCO – Mobilink while elaborating on key elements

that are to be the focus of the Digital Lab initiative. “The idea of having a Digital Innovation Lab is to provide easy access to Digital Innovators and Game Changers so they have a profound impact on the way people interact and engage online. As a Telecom Leader in Digital, we go above and beyond providing mere connectivity or access, we are at the forefront of enabling Digital Innovation and Connecting the Unconnected. This welcome development looks to tap in to the enormous digital potential Pakistan holds, and provides a launch-pad to speed up the digital revolution by partnering up with local and global players taking keen interest in the market.”

In a very interactive discussion with the Mobilink leadership there was mutual agreement on the effectiveness and utility of the upcoming USF Telecenter program as well as the National incubation Center initiative of MoIT, for achieving the GoP-Industry joint objectives. Several key points on further strengthening effective PPP arrangements to leverage these joint resources were discussed. It was agreed that a workshop on possible implementation mechanisms with the full participation of the industry as well as the USF and R&D Funds of MoIT, will be held to chart out a practical course of action with the full involvement of the Telecom Industry.