China-Pakistan Study Center (CPSC), Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad (ISSI) in partnership with Mishal Pakistan and Wusool arranged a webinar on Emerging Technologies: Important Tool to Combat COVID-19.
The wabinar was attended by senior academics, researcher, media, diplomats and members of the civil society community. Speakers from government, development sector and international institution expressed their views on the significance of technology to combat the COVID-19. Almost 100 participants joined the online session and took part in the discussion. The session was moderated by Dr. Talat Shabbir, Director China Pakistan Study Center, Institute of Strategic Studies, Islamabad.
Ambassador Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry, Director General Institute of Strategic Studies, Islamabad in his keynote remarks emphasized on the significance of technologies to deal with COVID-19 and said that this pandemic has also brought in the consideration, how to use modern technology in a more efficient way to communicate and connect.
He further said that although the technology race has already begun, but it is important to ensure its equitable access every segment of society. Moreover, for Indigenization of technologies we need to have more homegrown solutions. Research and Development at home is extremely important to detection, vaccine development, data collection and analysis. In order to deal with current health crisis COVID-19, it is important to enhance regional cooperation. Regionalism could become more popular, offering new opportunities.
He told that the responsibility to combat the COVID-19 situation rests with the private sector, civil society, media and other institutions and they should work together to lessen the suffering of the people of Pakistan.
Chief Executive Officer, Mishal Pakistan Amir Jahangir said while sharing his views that it is the need of hour to understand and make use of emerging technologies. Government needs to devise a system to use digital technologies for welfare of the people. Also, tax regimes on technologies help fight COVID-19 should be revisited to create more value for the citizens.
Founder of Vizteck Solutions Mr Barkan Saeed stated that China is successfully using thermal detectors & cameras to detect COVID19 patients. This technological advancement is helping China to combat Corona effectively.
Founding member BIR Ventures Mr. Hassan Syed said during his remarks opined that to keep everything going in this hard time we need to focus on care and cure. Our top priority should be producing more ventilators, test kits and #telemedicine should be made available for masses.
Research Associate at ISSI Ms. Aamna Rafiq stated that Corona tracking can be improved by data control, air traffic, social distance patterns, medical histories and how government handles epidemiological parameters at local/national levels of AI systems.
While sharing his views Dr. Akber Gardezi, said that while the use of technology is very important to deal with this crisis, however, it is important to note that due to weak access to technologies along with poor infrastructure, , the marginalized community has become more marginalized. So it is important to create inclusion, such that the wider segment of society is benefited.
Healthcare business professional Dr. Shumail Daud said that Pakistan and the world needs to invest more in healthcare systems and for this technology and digitization will be the best tool. Based on the world experiences, data scientists should be working with not only the private sector but also with the public sector.
Former CEO Ignite Mr Yusuf Hussain said while sharing his views said that the COVID-19 has impacted the world at large. In Pakistan, surveillance ecosystem is being used to detect Covid-19 patients, which is very important and timely response to minimize the costs on the already fragile health system. Equally, it is important to ensure food availability to the marginalized communities. With technology taking lead in today’s world, there is an opportunity for democratization of education across the world.
Dr. Abdul Rauf while commenting said that indigenous applications must be developed to deal with the multi-layered crisis and for this more emphasis must be put on knowledge production rather than physical infrastructures.
The China Pakistan Study Center, ISSI has initiated a series of webinars (Convergences) to bring topics of public policy into debate with the stakeholders to provide input from all quarters on issues impacting the society.