The President of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, Dr. Arif Alvi, has spoken positively about the benefits of blockchain technology in his country. It followed a meeting with representatives from the BSV ecosystem in Islamabad, in which industry representatives offered training and assistance in putting several of Pakistan’s government functions on-chain.
“I am convinced,” Dr. Alvi said during the meeting. He also spoke of the problems Pakistan faced with data silos across government functions, and spoke in favor of forming a National Blockchain Strategy for the country, starting with universities.
Leading the delegation is Founding President of BSV blockchain’s association, Jimmy Nguyen, who will spend a week in Pakistan with the delegation as part of a series of meetings in Islamabad and Karachi with senior government ministers and leaders from private business.
“This week, our Association has had the privilege of bringing a delegation of blockchain experts to Pakistan to learn how BSV can help the country harness the power of the blockchain – for its government agencies, enterprises, start-up ventures and developers,” Nguyen told CoinGeek. “Having attended sit-down meetings with the President of Pakistan Dr. Arif Alvi and the Minister of Science and Technology Mr. Shilbi Faraz on Monday, today’s Pakistan Blockchain Summit is a great chance to meet and hear from the dedicated and highly engaged blockchain community in the country.”
The meeting was broadcast in a news report on Pakistan Television Network PTV, and the president’s official Twitter account also posted a picture of the participants in a series of tweets about the issues discussed.
Dr. Alvi mentioned concerns he has with a lack of data-sharing between government departments, and discussed how blockchain could be used for digital identity and ID management. It could also make these functions more transparent and reduce corruption in both government and business.
