A More Peaceful Pakistan Puts On An IT Charm Offensive In Silicon Valley: The Forbes

Pakistan is set to take the next stage of development with hopes to leap up the list of ease-of-doing business by 20 to 30 notches, ambassador to the United States Asad Majeed Khan has said

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 16th Oct, 2019 ) :Pakistan is set to take the next stage of development with hopes to leap up the list of ease-of-doing business by 20 to 30 notches, ambassador to the United States Asad Majeed Khan has said.

In an interview with David Bloom of The Forbes, the envoy said Pakistan is pushing its Information Technology sector to the US companies and investors, hoping international deals will translate to a bottom-line boost for the country's struggling economy.

The interview under headline "A more peaceful Pakistan puts on an IT charm offensive in Silicon Valley" says that the most visible part of this fact came earlier this month with a day-long Silicon Valley conference in San Jose, California, backed by the Pakistani government.

"If I were to look at our overall economic performance, the IT sector comes out as one that has performed the best," said Asad Khan, who was also one of the conference speakers.

"The whole idea of doing the tech summit was to inform the companies in the Silicon Valley about what is our potential and what is it we can do together," he said.

More than 200 attendees heard pitches from 14 Pakistani start-ups seeking venture capital, along with panels on microelectronics, software development, artificial intelligence, gaming, medical innovation, and venture capital funding.

"Over the years, the government has not done as much as it should have in terms of focusing on expanding the IT sector," said Ambassador Khan. "In past two or three years, though, we've seen some phenomenal growth." The Forbes said "in part that's because the country's charismatic new prime minister, former international cricket star Imran Khan, has made the economy his top priority." "The economy is his Primary and principal focus," Ambassador Khan said. "The manner in which he's approaching foreign policy is rooted in his desire to turn around the economy and provide jobs for the people." As part of a broader set of initiatives, the country is trying to grow its already substantial tech sector and attract international investment, especially from the United States and neighbouring China.

Pakistan already generates at least $4 billion a year in IT exports, though the ambassador said the number is likely higher because some IT-related payments get lumped in with international remittances.

The biggest areas of operation are software development, Business Processing Offices and call centers. Now, the country hopes to move into more high-end sectors such as AI, gaming and visual effects. One potential opportunity discussed at the San Jose conference is moving into RISC-V microchip fabrication and export.

"Our IT success story is not as widely known and as widely shared as it should be," Ambassador Khan said. "If you were to only compare the numbers, the actual potential, then Pakistan has really come a long way in terms of harnessing the IT potential." The ambassador reeled off a number of statistics suggesting the country's resources and opportunities mainly being the world's sixth-most populous country with 207 million people and also having the world's youngest populations.

Khan said the number now is closer to 64 percent, still a prodigious tilt toward a younger, more tech-savvy population.

He mentioned that the country has 161 million cellphone users, 70 million of them on more modern 3g and 4g networks, and 72 million broadband users. The country turns out 35,000 graduates of IT-related training programs every year.

Also, the country has no restrictions on foreign ownership or repatriation of capital. � The government just issued an e-commerce policy that includes plans to create 15 IT parks around the country to house up to 5,000 companies.

The envoy said the issues with crime, corruption and security appear to had improved significantly compared to 10 years ago, according to international indexes, particularly in major cities such as Karachi.

On challenges to economy, he said the country was forced to seek assistance from the International Monetary Fund.

"We need to put our house in order," Ambassador Khan said. "We need to stop the bleeding of state-owned enterprises. We're rationalizing the tariff structure for (electrical) power, with a focus on exports. (The prime minister) wants to bring in more foreign direct investment. We are singularly focused on improving the ease of doing business."Asad Khan said Pakistan planned to continue its outreach to US tech companies, adding that the San Jose gathering was expected to become an annual event, with smaller regional gatherings to be held around the United States in coming months.