About Us

The Pakistan Country Gateway

The Pakistan Country Gateway (PCG) web portal is one of the central activities of the Pakistan Development Gateway Foundation, whose mission is to harness the potential of information communication technologies for sustainable development in Pakistan. The PCG infrastructure provides the primary technological platform for knowledge-building, sharing and facilitating e-development efforts while working as integrator and manager of information and knowledge on a variety of development themes including environment, governance, civil society, markets, education, technology, and services etc. With a variety of online services, the portal functions as key forum for cross-sectoral, multi-stakeholder dialogue while reducing transaction costs of information exchange and sharing, policy coordination, and facilitating institutional partnerships.

Key Objectives of the PCG

• To facilitate an exchange and sharing of development knowledge, information and resources among Pakistan's public, private and civil society sectors
• To facilitate business interaction, processes and relationships through the application of information technology
• To improve the accessibility of global consumers and markets to Pakistan, making it easier for people to learn about Pakistani markets, products and services.

Background

The Gateway initiative is a World Bank sponsored initiative for providing a development forum that uses information technology and the Internet to promote social and economic progress in developing countries. The primary aim is to aid development, and under the initiative, portal web sites are created for individual countries known as Country Gateways, which present information related to news, economy, development projects, statistics, e-governance, education and a broad range of other topics to facilitate information dissemination, improve decision making, help to improve transparency in government, and provide a knowledge sharing resource base.

The Pakistan Country Gateway was initiated through the World Bank's infoDev funding programme. The portal is neither owned nor operated by the World Bank, and the Bank is not responsible for any of the content on this website.

In order to manage the portal and other services under the e-development canopy of the ICTs & development, the Pakistan Development Gateway Foundation (PDGF) has been established. The PDGF will be the agency responsible for the governance of the PCG and its activities.

Pakistan Development Gateway Foundation

The Pakistan Development Gateway Foundation (PDGF) is an independent entity with its own Board of Directors. It operates the Pakistan Country Gateway website under the auspices of the Global Development Gateway and in partnership with multiple and diverse local partners who provide strategic guidance as well as material support through content, financial and technology partnerships.

The mission of the Pakistan Development Gateway Foundation is:

Facilitating the sharing and exchange of knowledge through the application of Information Communication Technologies in the establishment, enhancement and sustainability of tools that facilitate the conduct of more efficient and more effective government and business, thereby catalyzing social and human development, alleviating poverty and improving distributive justice in Pakistan.

In Pakistan the growth and proliferation of domestic Internet content and other ICT related activities such as e-commerce and e-learning have been slow, in keeping with the character of its developing economy. Important factors in this slow growth have been the low investments by the private sector in information technology, and the habitual lags between the identification of policy issues and their resolution through legislation. Almost equally important has been the role of disparities of income, opportunity and access, contributing to the Digital Divide-a long recognized bane of developing economies, that skews the rewards of technology into patterns of dispersal that are typical of other social indicators (such as income, literacy, access to healthcare etc.)

The Pakistan Development Gateway Foundation seeks to utilize the resources available to it and its partners to fill the gaps left by the private sector and Government in applying ICTs to establish online information sharing, commerce, education, and government, to ensure their effectiveness and to enhance their chances of sustainability. Additionally, the Pakistan Development Gateway Foundation will offer products and services that extends beyond the simple provisioning of content on the PCG portal. Please continue to visit the website for more information about PDGF's non-portal programmes and projects.

Disclaimer

The Pakistan Country Gateway is wholly owned, operated and managed by the Pakistan Development Gateway Foundation -- a non-profit, non-government, independent, wholly autonomous, Pakistani civil society organization.

This website is part of the Country Gateway Network.