President of Pakistan opened the 1st COMSTECH-MoST Showcasing of Artificial Intelligence and IoT Products and Services: AI and IoT for Pakistan
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COMSTECH in partnership with Ministry of Science and Technology, Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunications of Pakistan and Center for Advanced Research in Engineering (CARE) organized 1st Showcasing of Artificial Intelligence and IoT Products and Services: AI and IoT for Pakistan” on 4th August 2020. H.E. Dr. Arif Alvi President of Pakistan as the Chief Guest opened the event. The Minister for Science and Technology H.E. Mr. Chaudhry Fawad Hussain was the Guest of Honor. A good number of tech/computer experts, head of organizations, academicians/educators and students attended the event. President ECOSF Prof. Manzoor H. Soomro also attended the event on a special invitation.
The President of Pakistan inaugurated the Exhibition and then made a speech to the audiences. In his remarks, Dr. Alvi appreciated Ministry of Science and Technology, COMSTECH and other partner organizations for taking a pioneering step to initiate a series of exhibitions on modern technologies. He also appreciated COMSTECH for establishing close collaboration with partner institutions in OIC countries to hold such events and mentioned that under the new leadership of Prof. Dr. M. Iqbal Choudhary, COMSTECH has initiated a large number of capacity building activities and programs using its strong networking in 57 OIC member states. He highlighted the need of AI and its application while stressing for innovation creation and marketing the products.
He further said that such showcasing not only encourages a culture of innovation, but serves as a platform for interfacing between business and research institutions. The President pointed out weakness in human resources and mentioned a major initiative taken by his office to meet this lacking on Artificial Intelligence & Advance Computing (PIAIC) as a youth trainee program, to introduce the youth to these latest technologies.The Minister for Science and Technology of Pakistan H.E. Mr. Fawad Chaudhry also addressed the inaugural session. He said that the Ministry of S&T strongly believes that scientific and technological developments in our country must be translated into products and services. The Ministry continues to support research institutions, assured the minister. He mentioned that COMSTECH is the most important international organization OIC hosted by Pakistan. He said that MoST greatly values the central role that COMSTECH can play not only in the capacity building of OIC countries through linkages and exchanges, but also its pivotal role in presenting the best of Pakistan’s scientific and technological capabilities for the promotion of export of high technology products. We are closely working with the COMSTECH for the success of a large number of initiatives and programs, which have been launched under the dynamic leadership of Prof. Dr. M. Iqbal Choudhary Coordinator General of COMSTECH, he said.
Earlier, Prof. Iqbal Chaudhry humbly thanked the President of Pakistan and Minister of S&T for attending the event. He further briefed about 120 new programmes of COMSTECH to promote science and technology between the OIC member states. He also mentioned that main focus of COMSTECH programmes is to develop skills and capacity of youth of the OIC region in modern technologies. He also mentioned that COMSTECH is projecting Pakistan’s image as scientifically leading country through inter and intra-Islamic initiatives.
In his welcome address, Mr. M. Aamir, Project Director, CARE, a partner organization of this event, welcomed all the distinguished guests and said that the impact of AI alone on the global GDP is expected to be 15.7 trillion USD. Countries around the globe are strategizing to take maximum benefit from these technologies. If Pakistan captures even a miniscule percentage like 1% of this market, it values 157 billion USD something like 25 trillion Pak Rupees.
Twenty-six exhibitors from industry, academia, research centers and strategic organizations from all over Pakistan participated in this exhibition and showcased their products and services in areas of Health, Internet of Things, Virtual Assistants & Chatbots, Big Data & Data Analytics, Cyber Security, Digital Transformation – 5G, Virtual Augmented Reality, Block Chain, and Business Intelligence. A large number of students and researchers visited this two-day exhibition.
Addressing the closing ceremony Coordinator General COMSTECH, Prof. Dr. M. Iqbal Choudhary congratulated the partner organizations, including Ministry of Science and Technology, Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunications of Pakistan and Center for Advanced Research in Engineering (CARE) for holding this event successfully. He assured that COMSTECH would organize such events in future in advanced cutting-edge technologies throughout OIC member states. He mentioned that main focus of COMSTECH programmes is to develop skills and capacity of youth of OIC region in modern technologies. He also mentioned that COMSTECH is projecting Pakistan’s image as scientifically leading country through inter- and intra-Islamic initiatives in modern technologies. He also mentioned that COMSTECH is projecting Pakistan’s image as scientifically leading country through inter- and intra-Islamic initiatives.