The government of Pakistan wants to engage the Bill Gates Foundation to invest in the IT and Science sector of Pakistan. According to the sources, American business tycoon and philanthropist Bill Gates will visit Pakistan on September 23, 2023.
Sources say that on the occasion of Bill Gates’ visit to Pakistan, the government will convince him to invest and help Pakistan in the IT and science and technology sectors. The government has sought details on important projects and investment opportunities from both the IT and Science and Technology ministries.
During the billionaire’s visit, Caretaker Prime Minister Anwar-ul-Haq Kakar will give him a briefing on Pakistan’s IT and science and technology sector. Bill Gates will be briefed on the potential of Pakistan’s IT and science and technology sectors, as well as the steps taken by the government of Pakistan for the development of these sectors.
Homework in this regard had already been done when Bill Gates came to Pakistan in 2022 and the government of that time discussed cooperation in the IT sector with him. This year, former Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had a meeting with Bill Gates during his visit to America, in this meeting IT cooperation was also discussed.
What is this obsession with Microsoft ? Microsoft opened its office in India in 1990 and has 20,000 employees there. The CEO of Microsoft is also Indian American. A country which depends on govt. officials and ministers to convince CEOs of tech organizations to invest in the country is the first sign that there this something wrong there. Policies are not clear, neither are they available on websites. Setting up a company is a tedious process. Then you have FBR and sales tax/SROs. They there is a problem of outward remittance. And then you have devaluation as a problem. The regulatory framework is outdated. Company formation is outdated. Taxation is outdated. Security is an issue (you require Presidential security for cricket teams). Once a SVP of a large s/w company visited Pak to decide whether to set up office in Islamabad or Dubai. During his visit and nothing to do with his visit, there was a massive procession of religious people shutting down Lahore. He made his decision on where to open the office. The tech talent of this country has built a solid reputation and have no issues getting visas/permanent residencies abroad. Even though the passport is lowly ranked. So someone some day will realize where the issue is and fix it. And i have not seen it happen since 1990