ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue Senator Muhammad Aurangzeb said on Wednesday that the Pakistan Economy Dashboard (PED) would help promote transparency, ensure data accessibility, and serve as an interactive platform for data analysis.
“Data is the new oil. The point is what you do with that data,” the minister remarked while addressing the launching ceremony of the Pakistan Economy Dashboard the minister here.
Initially, it can’t just be raw data that would need to be transformed through data analytics, for this purpose there is need to create an interactive platform like PED.
Aurangzeb said this platform offers transparency to stakeholders across various sectors, including the finance ministry, other ministries, academia, research institutions, media organisations, and journalists.
He said there would no longer be a need to visit libraries or dig through books. PED provides unbiased facts, whether we like them or not, regardless of whoever they belong to. The fact base is now at your fingertips.
The minister invited collaboration from academia, research organizations, and think tanks to do analysis and give suggestions in this regard.
He highlighted that the analysis may be constructive criticism, around fiscal reforms, tax policy, public expenditure or macroeconomic stability.
Talking about the utilization of technology, the minister said that wherever technology was utilized, remarkable results were achieved, citing example of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) where successes were made vertically automation.
However, Digital Pakistan hasn’t progressed as expected because it lacks horizontal integration, with data remaining fragmented and unconnected.
To establish a strong national identity required integrating all aspects with a centralized national identity platform.
