ISLAMABAD-The Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) has called for Cyber Security Policy for SMEs to save them from business losses.
Faad Waheed, Acting President, ICCI, on Thursday, said that SMEs are the backbone of the economy and are now increasingly moving towards automation and digitisation to improve their productivity, efficiency and cost-effectiveness. He urged that the government should focus on formulating a specific cyber security prevention policy for SMEs to save them from business losses due to cyber attacks. He said this while talking to a delegation of Chinese cyber security solution providers during its visit to ICCI led by Ammar Jafri, former DG FIA and founder of Digital Pakistan. Faad Waheed said that many SMEs are now going online to expand their outreach to wider markets and improve their business prospects.
He said that Pakistan’s National Cyber Security Policy 2021 also encourages promotion of online businesses; however, the policy is lacking in strong defence measures to protect the SMEs from cyber risks and threats. He stressed that the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecom in consultation with stakeholders should develop a specific Cyber Security Policy for SMEs to facilitate them in going digital. He said that Chinese IT companies providing cyber security solutions have great prospects in the Pakistani market and they should take advantage of this untapped market, especially for SMEs by investing in Pakistan.
Ammar Jafri, former DG FIA and founder of Digital Pakistan said that Pakistan is gearing up for the 5th generation industrial revolution and stressed that the government should develop a strong digital infrastructure to enable businesses to flourish and compete effectively in the international market. He said that the focus of Digital Pakistan is to promote connectivity, improve digital infrastructure, increase investment in digital skills and promote innovation and tech entrepreneurship. He said that cooperation of ICCI with Digital Pakistan would be helpful in promoting digitisation in SMEs.
The Chinese delegation members said that their company is one of the top cyber security solution providers with offices in Asia, South Asia and East Africa. They said that they want to introduce their cyber security solutions in Pakistan for business enterprises to save them from business losses due to cyber attacks.
Maqsood Tabish, Acting Senior Vice President, and Faizan Shehzad, Acting Vice President ICCI, said that SMEs are vulnerable to cyber attacks in Pakistan as they don’t have strong technological defences in place and hoped that the Chinese IT companies would invest in Pakistan to provide sustainable cyber security solutions to these businesses and assured that ICCI would fully cooperate with them in such efforts.