By Hifsa Raja ISLAMABAD, April 05 (INP-WealthPK): A Rs5-billion programme will be launched soon to impart digital skills to 100,000 youths to help them earn a decent living and contribute to the economic growth. Talking to WealthPK, Sahibzada Ali Mehmood, Managing Director of the Information Technology Board, said the initiative involves both advanced and intermediate digital skills. “Advanced skills involve programming, digital business analysis, digital marketing, graphic designing, data visualisation and data science. While intermediate digital skills include web designing, WordPress, content-writing and application designing.” Mehmood said youths having learnt such skills will become able to design and make software and databases to be exported, thus booming the economy. He said that such initiatives are very important if we want to put the economy on a sustainable growth path. He told WealthPK that some more such initiatives will be launched in near future. Ali Mehmood said that a programme titled ‘Employable Digital Skills for Youth of Merged Areas’ recently concluded, imparting digital skills to the youth from the former Federally-Administered Tribal Areas to enable them to contribute to development of their areas. He said the youth can learn digital skills through both virtual classes and in-person. Ali Mehmood told WealthPK that ‘Khuddar Programme’ is another initiative launched to promote digital skills. “About 800 to 1,000 people have learned digital skills under this initiative.” Industry leaders acknowledge that there have been concrete steps taken under the Digital Pakistan Policy 2021 to promote the country’s IT sector. The policy is to ensure connectivity and access to internet, laying out the digital infrastructure and providing digital literacy to the youth. The Digital Pakistan Policy also stipulates providing an environment to startups to flourish with an aim to promote innovation and entrepreneurship. Pakistan's economy has come out strongly from the shocks of the Covid-19 pandemic as conventional sectors recover and startups emerge. The measures taken under the digital policy have resulted in a steady increase in information and communications technology (ICT) exports, as Pakistani enterprises and freelancers capitalise on the increased global demand for tech-related services. According to the State Bank of Pakistan data, ICT exports increased by 30% to reach $1.69 billion in the first eight months of the current fiscal year 2021-22. The data shows that the ICT sector has risen to the top of the services sector in terms of economic contribution. Exports increased across all categories of the ICT sector, including software consultancy, call centres, and telecom services. Overall, exports of the services sector achieved a 18% year-on-year growth at $4.49 billion over the first eight months of the current fiscal year.