Minding the Gap: Digital Inclusion for the Move Forward

“Digital Inclusion” has now become an oft repeated catchphrase these days when talking about digitalization or digitising. Everyone is talking about it, especially now in Pakistan. For me personally the underlying principle around digital Inclusion is how digital technologies should lower the barrier to entries across multiple areas like finance, markets, investment, education, health etc. for both served and underserved parts of the population.

"Every individual needs internet access. The gender digital divide in Pakistan is significant, and there can be no progress without addressing it" . Shaza Fatima, Federal Minister, IT and Telecommunication,

The hope is that digital should be the great equalizer that should ideally create a more equitable society, quoting Allama Iqbal here “eek hi saaf main kharaiy ho gaye Mahmood-o-Ayaz, na koi banda raha na koi banda Nawaz”

Covid 2020 pandemic further hastened the digitalization journey across the world and brought in that sense of urgency that saw an explosion of new data and digital driven business models around the world. Advanced countries that had been on this journey for nearly 2 decades stepped into new digital realms like AI, block chain, Web3, token based economics etc. UAE, for example, has started working on tokenization of its Real Estate, meaning creating block chain-based digital representations of real estate properties, enabling fractional ownership and investment opportunities in that sector.

A great example of digital inclusion as this approach now allows individual small investors to own a fraction or a piece of real estate in Dubai thus lowering the barrier to entry in real estate investment.

On other hand Covid also pushed emerging countries like Pakistan to quickly hop onto the digital bandwagon. We also saw the advent of digital driven business models thus leading to burgeoning sectors like ecommerce, Fintech, Edtech, health tech etc. Although I would say we are still at a nascent stage in terms of growth and maturity of these sectors. Some of them are advancing quite rapidly while others are still trudging along.

By a rough estimate Pakistan’s digital economy stands at around 2% of the GDP. Much needs to be done in the digital space if the country needs to catch up to global standards.

As per the World Economic Forum (WEF)1 Digital technologies have not only transformed the global economy but have become integral to our social fabric over the past two decades, with the share of the digital economy already accounting for more than 15.5% of global gross domestic product (GDP). An estimated 70% of the new value created in the economy over the next decade will be based on digitally enabled platform business models.

By a rough estimate Pakistan’s digital economy stands at around 2% of the GDP. Much needs to be done in the digital space if the country needs to catch up to global standards. Already certain policies and acts are being introduced to transform Pakistan into a Digital Nation. However it’s a no brainer that it needs to be a multi-stakeholders endeavour where effective and efficient collaboration is needed between the public and the private sectors to ensure the path to success.

Lastly with every opportunity comes challenges as well and one of the challenges that I want to leave this note on is the environmental impact of digitalization. Think about it! More on this in our next conversation.