The Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) revolution is transforming the way we interact, work and live, forcing us to ask questions and seek answers about social development and economic growth. If we apply ICTs well on a national scale, they could help to enhance innovation, solve problems, develop capacity, mobilize resources and build communities. ICTs are now used widely to trigger long-term sustainable development in a country, bringing benefits to everyone regardless of location, age, disability or income.
INET Islamabad will bring together over 250 participants from the Government agencies, Internet service providers, mobile operators, academic institutions, banks, ICT entrepreneurs, commercial companies and the general public.
The event will host deliberations on a selection of topics most relevant to Pakistan in the context of its journey towards a digital economy and building an ICT agenda for sustainable development. The conference will feature insights from leading International and National subject matter experts with broad technical, policy and development experience.
Watch the Recorded Webcast!
Agenda
| Time | Title/Description |
| 17:30 to 19:00 | Telecommunication ‘CxO’ Level [by-invite only] A moderated discussion inviting ‘CxO’ level from Telecommunication Industry of Pakistan, Ministry of Information Technology, Planning Commission of Pakistan, Federal Board of Revenue, Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, representatives from ITU and APT to deliberate on role of ICT sector and services to achieve development goals envisioned in Government of Pakistan’s “Vision 2025” document. |
| 19:30 to 22:00 | INET Islamabad Opening Reception |
| Time | Title/Description |
| 10:30 to 11:15 | Opening Plenary Opening Remarks: Syed Ismail Shah, Chairman, Pakistan Telecommunication Authority Welcome Note: Rajnesh Singh, Regional Bureau Director, Internet Society Chief Guest: Barrister Zafarullah Khan, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister KeyNote: Azmat Ali Ranjha, Secretary IT, Ministry of Information Technology |
| 11:15 to 12:30 | Panel I: Infrastructure and Connectivity for Sustainable Development Moderator: Rajnesh Singh, Internet Society Panelist 1 – Matthew Perkins, Economic Affairs Office, ICT & Development Section, UNESCAP Panelist 2 – Syed Ismail Shah, Chairman, Pakistan Telecommunication Authority Panelist 3 – Yoonee Jeong, Research Director, TPRC Corporate, Singapore |
| 12:30 to 14:00 | Lunch |
| 14:00 to 15:30 | Session I: Digital Financial Inclusion Moderator: Tariq Sultan, Member (Finance), Pakistan Telecommunication Authority Speaker 1 – Yoonee Jeong, Research Director, TPRC Corporate, Singapore Speaker 2 – Syed Irfan Ali, Executive Director, State Bank of Pakistan Speaker 3 – Yahya Khan, Chief Financial Services Officer, Telenor Pakistan Speaker 4 – Ghazanfar Azzam, President & CEO, Waseela Microfinance Bank Limited |
| 15:30 to 16:00 | Coffee Break |
| 16:00 to 17:30 | Session II: Building Trust in Cyberspace Moderator: Ameen Sharif, CTO, ITnIS Consulting Speaker 1 – Dr. Stephen Sheehan, Program Officer, Asia-Pacific Telecommunity Speaker 2 – Olaf Kolkman, Chief Internet Technology Officer, Internet Society Speaker 3 – Leonard Ong, International Vice President, ISACA Speaker 4 – Barrister Waqqas Mir, Partner at Mohsin Tayebaly & Co |
| 19:00 to 22:00 | INET Islamabad Gala Dinner |
| Time | Title/Description |
| 09:00 to 10:30 | Session III: Growth of ICT Industry Moderator: Dr. Mukhtar Ahmed, Chairperson, Higher Education Commission of Pakistan Speaker 1 – Helani Galpaya, CEO, LIRNEasia Speaker 2 – Mudassar Hussain, Ministry of Telecom & IT, Government of Pakistan Speaker 3 – Asim Shahryar, Managing Director, Pakistan Software Export Board Speaker 4 – Mr. Parvaiz Iftikhar, International ICT Consultant |
| 10:30 to 11:00 | Coffee Break |
| 11:00 to 12:30 | Session IV: e-Gov architecture, standards and implementation Moderator: Naveed Haq, Internet Society Speaker 1 – Harish Pillay Global Head – Community Architecture and Leadership, Red Hat Inc Speaker 2 – Dr. Umar Saif, Chairman, Punjab Information Technology Board Speaker 3 – Wisit Atipayakoon, Programme Officer, International Telecommunication Union, Asia-Pacific Regional Office Speaker 4 – Dr. Hasnain Bokhari, Willy Brandt School of Public Policy, University of Erfurt |
| 12:30 to 14:00 | Lunch |
| 14:00 to 15:30 | Panel II: Towards a Digital Economy Moderator: Amber Rahim Shamsi, BBC Panelist 1 – Rajnesh Singh, Internet Society Panelist 2 -Matthew Perkins, Economic Affairs Officer, ICT and Development Section, UNESCAP Panelist 3 – Wisit Atipayakoon, Programme Officer, International Telecommunication Union, Asia-Pacific Regional Office Panelist 4 -Syed Ismail Shah, Chairman Pakistan Telecommunication Authority |
| 15:30 to 16:00 | Closing Plenary Key Note: Miftah Ismail, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister and Chairman Board of Investment Vote of Thanks: Amir Qayyum, Internet Society Pakistan Islamabad Chapter Vote of Thanks: Syed Ismail Shah, Chairman, Pakistan Telecommunicaiton Authority |
Speakers
Tariq Sultan
Member (Finance), Pakistan Telecommunication Authority
Mr. Tariq Sultan is Member (Finance) of Pakistan Telecommunication Authority. He has also served PTA as Director General (Finance) and headed other Divisions including Commercial Affairs, Economic Affairs, and Revenue Assurance Audit Divisions. Prior to joining PTA, Mr. Tariq Sultan worked for Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce in Canada, National Development Leasing Corporation (now NIB Bank Ltd.) and managed a multi-purpose Modaraba for 7 years in Karachi.
Mr. Sultan is an IBA graduate and a member of many professional bodies including ICMAP, CMA Canada, Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants, Institute of Bankers in Pakistan, Institute of Internal Auditors, USA, and Information Systems Audit and Control Association, USA. He was also a FCO scholar in University of Manchester, UK, where he earned M.Sc. degree in Accounting & Finance.
Stephen Sheehan
Program Officer, Asis-Pacific Telecommunity
Dr. Stephen Sheehan is a Programme Officer with the Secretariat for the Asia-Pacific Telecommunity (APT). His responsibilities include intergovernmental coordination, industry consultation and organising a number of the APT’s conferences including the Policy and Regulatory Forum, Policy and Regulation Forum for Pacific, Cybersecurity Forum and Workshop on Disaster Management/Communications. He previously worked in the communications portfolio for the Australian Government on international engagement, cybersecurity, television broadcasting and digital switchover. Before joining government he was an academic who lectured and conducted research into the history and development of communications technology.
Ameen Sharif
Chief Technology Officer, ITnIS
Mr Ameen Sharif is founder and CTO of ITnIS Consulting – a premium ICT and InfoSec consulting company in Pakistan. He has over 20 years of experience in related field. Currently, he is engaged in designing of large scale ICT & Security Infrastructure including Tier-4 Data Center, FTTH Network, Centralized WiFi, Smart and Secure buildings. Previously, he was CISO for FFC and has also served at Government Sector organizations. He holds Masters Degree in Computer Science and has CISSP CEH CRISC CISA and CPTP certifications. He is member of ISACA, (ISC)2, IEEE, CSA and ISOC. He is also founding member and board member for ISOC Pakistan Islamabad Chapter.
He has been honoured with Teradata National IT Excellency Award (Networking) and Information Security Leadership Achievement Award ISLA for Asia Pacific.
Amber Shamsi
Correspondent, BBC World Service
Amber Shamsi is an award-winning and multi-media journalist currently working as a bilingual correspondent with the BBC World Service in Islamabad. She has worked in the media for nearly fifteen years in print, online, radio and television. Through her career she performed many roles – as a desk editor, reporter, producer and presenter and interviewed celebrities, politicians and government officials for both local and international media outlets. As a reporter, she focuses on human rights and social affairs, and technology.
Rajnesh Singh
Regional Bureau Director for Asia-Pacific, Internet Society
Rajnesh Singh is Regional Director of the Asia-Pacific Regional Bureau at the Internet Society where he oversees projects, initiatives and activities across the Internet Society’s functional and programmatic areas in the Asia and Pacific region, including Public Policy, Capacity Building and Internet Standards and Technology. Read more
Syed Ismail Shah
Chairman, Pakistan Telecommunication Authority
Dr. S. Ismail Shah ranks among Asia’s most renowned telecom professional, with expertise and experience spanning 2G, 3G, 4G and 5G technologies. With an extensive background in technology implementation and telecommunications policymaking & regulations, Dr. Shah is serving as the Chairman of the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) since 2013, and has led some of the most high profile undertakings in Pakistan’s telecommunications industry that has a worth of more than USD 21 Billion. These undertakings include spectrum auction and subsequent launch of 3G/4G and subsequent growth in one of the world’s most competitive and price-sensitive markets. This has been recognized by the GSMA in the shape of the Spectrum for Mobile Broadband Award 2015 given to Pakistan.
Dr. Umar Saif
Chairman, Punjab Information Technology Board
Dr. Umar Saif is the Chairman of the Punjab Information Technology Board, heading all public-sector IT projects in the Government of Punjab since Nov 2011.
Dr. Umar Saif has extensive experience in academia, management, consulting and entrepreneurship in the IT sector. Dr. Saif received his academic training from LUMS, Cambridge and MIT. He did his BSc (Hons) from LUMS (1998), PhD from University of Cambridge (2001) and Post-Doctorate from MIT (2002). Dr. Saif has received Executive Education from the Harvard Kennedy School on Global leadership and public policy in 2013.
In 2013, Dr. Saif was appointed the founding Vice-Chancellor of the Information Technology University (ITU), Punjab, where he is responsible for establishing a new publicly chartered university with programs in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering.
Dr. Saif has received numerous awards for his work. He was awarded Sitara-i-Imtiaz (SI), one of the highest civil awards by Government of Pakistan, in 2014 in recognition of his services to Pakistan. He was the first Pakistani to be named as one of the top 35 young innovators in the world (TR35) in 2011 by MIT Technology Review. He was the first Pakistani to receive the prestigious Google Faculty Research Award in 2011. He was selected as a Young Global Leader (YGL) by the World Economic Forum in 2010. Dr. Saif is a recipient of the MIT Technovator Award in 2008, Mark Weiser Award in 2008, IDG CIO Technology Pioneer Award in 2008 and Digital Inclusion Award from Microsoft Research in 2006. His papers have received best paper awards in ACM CHI 2013 and IEEE Percom 2008. During his doctorate studies, Dr. Saif was a Trinity College Overseas Scholar and Commonwealth Scholar at University of Cambridge. Dr. Saif received his PhD at the age of 23 years from University of Cambridge and first Pakistani to receive a PhD in Computer Science from Cambridge.
Previously, Dr. Saif worked and taught at the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) as a research scientist for four years. Dr. Saif worked as a fulltime faculty member at LUMS between 2006-2013
Gihan Dias
Board of Trustees, Internet Society
Prof. Dias has been a well-known figure in the Internet world since 1988, and has extensive knowledge and experience in both the technical operation of the Internet and socio-economic issues. He has a proven track record in leading non-profit organizations, and has excellent written and spoken communications skills. He has been working with the Internet Society since 1994 and is currently President of the Internet Society, Sri Lanka Chapter. Read more.
Harish Pillay
Global head of Community Architecture and Leadership, Red Hat Inc.
Harish has been in the IT industry for over 25 years. He is currently with Red Hat heading up a team that engages with the global open source community. He holds a BS and MS in Computer Science and Electrical and Computer Engineering both from Oregon State University. He is a pioneer of Internet related activities in Singapore since 1991 and is also the founder of the Linux Users’ Group (Singapore) setup in 1993. Harish is a Fellow of the Singapore Computer Society and a Distinguished Partner awardee from SPRING Singapore. Presently, he is also serving as president of Internet Society Singapore Chapter. Read more.
Helani Galpaya
Chief Executive Officer, LIRNEasia
Helani Galpaya is CEO of LIRNEasia, a pro-poor, pro-market think tank working across the emerging Asia Pacific on ICT policy and regulatory issues. She assumed the CEO role in Jan 2013.
Matthew Perkins
Economic Affairs Officer, ICT and Development Section, United Nations ESCAP
Matthew Perkins is the Economic Affairs Officer at the UNESCAP where he conducts research and analysis on ICT policies and initiatives to promote economic and social development in Asia-Pacific and provides support intergovernmental cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region on ICT policies. He also manages technical assistance projects to improve the capacities of Asia-Pacific developing countries to implement and monitor policies on ICT for Development.
Leonard Ong
International Vice President, ISACA
Leonard Ong has over 15 years of experience in information and corporate security gained in the telecommunication, enterprise and banking industries. He was with Barclays Capital as Head of Global Information Security Risk & Operation, Asia Pacific. While at Nokia Siemens Networks, Ong was responsible in securing Nokia businesses across in seven countries across the region. Ong has been volunteering in a number of security associations since early 2000, with his longest service being for ISACA Singapore Chapter where he was been elected chapter president twice. He is currently serving in ASIS International councils (IT Security Council and Crisis Management & Business Continuity Management) and ISACA Professional Advocacy Committee Member.
Wisit Atipayakoon
Programme Officer, Asia-Pacific Regional Office, International Telecommunication Union
Atipayakoon joined the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in 2005 as a Telecom/ICT Specialist in the Telecommunication Development Bureau (BDT) based in the ITU Regional Office for Asia.
