ISLAMABAD: Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Ahsan Iqbal has urged the IT experts from academia, industry, and government organizations to work jointly for a holistic development of country`s IT sector.

The minister was speaking at a roundtable on: `Building Human Capital for Digital Revolution` organised by the Higher Education Commission (HEC) in collaboration with the Ministry of Planning and others, says a press release issued by the HEC on Wednesday.

It said that brainstorming session was primarily aimed at garnering views of IT experts from academia and industry to align the IT and Computer Science curricula with industry needs and come up with a pathway for growth of the country`s IT sector.

The planning minister directed for constituting a joint academia-industry working group to define a future course of action, assign responsibilities, and set timeframes for various tasks and projects of IT sector all inclu-sive development.

`We need to ensure that our digital workforce should be a problem solver, he urged.

He also emphasised that the Pakistani youth should be motivated to identify the problems of respective field and put in run of the mill to solve by fully exploiting the IT potential.

He underpinned the universities need to not only impart education but also inculcate skills to enable the youth to learn latest techniques, be wellgroomed, and have best entrepreneurial and communication skills, which would enable them readily employable.

Highlighting the importance of making progress on the IT f rontiers for the country`s prosperity, he said that there is a need for uninterrupted execution of plans and policies.

He said no country could make progress unless it witnesses political stability and continuity of policies.

He stressed the need for frequently organising such sessions and bringing together the academia, industry and IT professionalstokeep abreastof the latest trends and developments in the sector and prepare the country`s youth for a digital revolution.Acting Chairperson/Executive Director HEC Dr Shaista Sohail said that HEC is cognisant of the everchanging needs of IT and Computing Sciences education.

She stressed the need for keeping a watchful eye on the ever changing market dynamics and improving the entire ecosystem around IT/CS sector.

CEOs, heads and representative of major IT enterprises expressed their views on the gaps, challenges, and opportunities in the IT and CS sector in Pakistan. The participants were informed that the Computing Sciences curriculaisinlinewiththeAssociation for Computing Machinery (ACM) standards and HEC with Ministry of IT has started negotiation on NCEAC Act to enable Pakistan to sign Seoul Accord on Computing Education. They were apprised that the Pakistani Higher Education Institutions produce 50,000 IT graduates every year.

The participants stressed the need for making the Final Year Projects (FYPs) of Computing Sciences students productive by linking them with the real-world industry problem instead of picking up theoretical and hypotheticalideas.