IT Minister Informs German Investors About the Booming Pakistani Market

A three member delegation comprising, Jan Bolz an IT investor from Germany, Dr. Bernhard Kaleem an Austrian ICT investor and Rabeel Warraich, CEO Sarmayacar called on Minister of State for IT & Telecom Anusha Rahman in Islamabad today.

The delegates apprised the Minister regarding their respective company profiles and expressed keen interest in further investing in Pakistan’s rapidly growing ICT sector.

Anusha Rahman shared the initiatives that her government is pursuing, for “Accelerated Digitalization” with special emphasis on bridging broadband divide to spur socio-economic growth across the country.

She said that the recent accelerated development in the arena of ICTs has made Pakistan a very lucrative destination for IT investors. Therefore, many local and foreign investors are vying to join in on common ICT Agenda in a public-private partnership because we all believe that future of the world is ICTs, the minister said.

She further said that we are committed to providing next generation broadband connectivity to even remote rural areas of the country through broadband for the sustainable development program, which is being funded by USF. By 2018, every village with 100 population in the whole country will be connected.

The Minister also shared some key initiatives including “ICT For Girls” with the delegates. She said that we have initiated an ICT For Girls program to increase the employability potential of marginalized young girls .

Now thousands of girls are being trained in coding and computing through Microsoft. Likewise 226 public sector girl schools of Islamabad are being digitized.

Anusha Rahman further said that training of young entrepreneurs and ICT graduate startups always remained a policy focus. Therefore, the government has established a state of the art “National ICT Incubation Centre” in a public private partnership mode in the capital and four more in provincial capitals are in the offing.

The main purpose of this project was to transform innovative ideas of talented young teams into viable and self sustainable startup companies, through appropriate training, mentorship and facilitation. Now these initiatives are getting worldwide recognition

The delegates appreciated the vision of the government and Minister for IT and hailed all the initiatives being carried out by the Minister of IT & Telecom for development of ICTs in the region. They expressed their keenness to contribute in the development of ICT through investment.