Islamabad: Pakistan is intensifying efforts to integrate women into its digital economy, a move Federal Minister for IT & Telecommunication Shaza Fatima Khawaja identified as critical for formalising the nation”s vast informal sector, which constitutes about half of the country”s Gross Domestic Product.
The statement was made during a high-level meeting of the Steering Committee (SC) for the Digitalization for Women Economic Empowerment (D4WEE) Project, convened at the UN Women Country Office. The Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication (MoITT) chairs the committee, which provides strategic oversight for the four-year (2024–2028) initiative funded by KOICA, according to an official meeting today.
Minister Khawaja highlighted significant progress in digital inclusion, noting that the gender gap in mobile internet usage fell from a range of 36–38% to 25% last year. She also pointed to the creation of over 800,000 digital wallets by women through a recent Ramzan digital payments initiative and a government scheme providing 7 million free SIMs to underserved women to improve access to digital and financial services.
Expanding women”s participation is seen as essential for strengthening the workforce supply, enhancing per capita productivity, and building a sustainable talent pipeline for Pakistan”s evolving digital landscape.
Looking ahead, the minister called for strategic preparation for emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence, emphasizing they must function as equalizers rather than worsening disparities. She reinforced the SC”s mandate to embed project outcomes into institutional strategies, ensure sustainability beyond the project”s cycle, and monitor gender-disaggregated results.
The meeting concluded with a renewed commitment from all government and private sector stakeholders to improve inter-agency collaboration and speed up programme implementation. The committee aims to translate these efforts into lasting policy reforms, ensuring women play a central role in the nation”s economy under the Prime Minister’s Digital Nation Vision.