A recent report by Huawei and Arthur D. Little has shed light on the potential of the Middle Eastern region’s digital economy. Presented at the SAMENA Council’s Accelerating a Sustainable Digital Economy Summit earlier this week the study provides suggestions for Middle Eastern countries’ policy actions in order to realize their digital visions. Pakistan is described as a “ICT Novice,” but the study points out that the nation has tremendous potential to become a strong digital economy.
Pakistan is currently a novice in the IT economy, owing to its low adoption of ICT goods and services and poor ICT infrastructure. As Huawei and Arthur D. Little’s report states, however the right policies will allow the nation to exploit its low-cost base and vast workforce to become a powerhouse of service and software.
The study indicates that this can be done by uplifting the digital economy’s supply and demand sides in tandem, enhancing digital infrastructure, connectivity, and skills, while cultivating a strong ecosystem around strategic industry clusters such as software and entertainment. In total profits in excess of $1.9 billion have been projected by the consultancy group and thousands of high-quality jobs will be generated.
Depending on the concept, the digital economy is expected to account for 4.5 to 15.5 percent of world GDP today. This is equal to US$11.5 trillion in its broadest sense and is rising at about 3 times the pace of overall GDP.
The report highlights the importance of the digital economy in this era and highlights the importance of evaluating the real effect of its growth so that the digital age can continue to be good for countries.
“As the digital economy becomes a key driver of economic development in the Middle East, the true impact of its development and the best practices that are helping countries to succeed today must continue to be measured. To achieve this goal, working together with global institutions and think tanks in the fields of theory and research at Huawei is incredibly important,” a Huawei executive noted.
