November 06, 2023 (MLN): Tech entrepreneurship in Pakistan has taken off and the country is leapfrogging into a new era of the tech industry, said Masood Khan, Pakistan’s Ambassador to the United States, as per a latest press release issued.
A number of factors have contributed to the exponential growth of the tech sector of the country. One is the ecosystem; the digitization of the economy.
A new class of professionals graduating from universities is participating in the digitized economy and this is giving a new direction to our economy.
Second is the enabling environment that the government has created for the growth of the tech and IT sector keeping in view its immense potential not just for Pakistan, but also for the extended neighborhood comprising Middle East, Central Africa, West Asia and other adjoining markets.
“So it is in this context what we call a nascent tech revolution in Pakistan,” he added.
Masood Khan made these remarks as a keynote speaker during a special session, ‘Tales of Triumph: The Rise of Pakistani Startup’, at the Annual OPEN Global Silicon Valley Convention in Santa Clara, CA.
He said that the country has set up a Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC) and the IT sector was among its foremost priorities.
He said that the Council is aimed at fast-tracking approvals and registrations, overseeing implementation and catalyzing much needed regulatory reforms including ensuring stable payment cycles and addressing the issues related to repatriation of funds by foreign investors.
Highlighting the successes in the tech and IT sector, he apprised the participants that from a meagre $10 million in venture capital funding in 2018 per year, global VCs and other investors were pouring in $1 billion annually in Pakistan now.
“This is despite the headwinds that we faced; economic, political, and pandemic and the devastating floods lost year,” he said.
He noted that leading global VCs including Kleiner Perkins, Target, Tiger Global, Dragoneer, Acrew, Sequoia Capital, UK’s Kingsway, Speed Invest from Europe, UAE’s Sharooq, and China accelerator and Fatimah Gobi from China were betting their money in Pak tech startups.
He urged the need to retain venture capital funding and also move to less capital-intensive tech enterprises, he said while noting challenges in the tech industry.
He recounted various steps being taken by the government to facilitate businesses that included moving toward investors friendly regulatory regime, E-Wallet facility introduced by State Bank of Pakistan, clear definition of a tech-startup by Securities and Exchange Commission and the setting up of Special Technology Zones.
On incentives for US investors and businesses, Masood Khan said that the presence of some 80 US enterprises in Pakistan “creates an enabling environment for new entrepreneurs to go into the Pakistani market.
The Ambassador called the 235 million population of the country with a median age of 22 and a growing middle class of over 80m, as suggested by Forbes, as a promising demographic profile that would steer the country towards growth. He reiterated his call to have full faith in Pakistan.
Copyright Mettis Link News
Posted on: 2023-11-06T15:37:00+05:00
