Foreign companies welcome to invest in country’s fast-growing IT sector: President Alvi

ISLAMABAD, Jan 04 (SABAH): President Dr. Arif Alvi has said that Digital Transformation was at the heart of the country’s vision to create a conducive environment for technology development and growth, which included inviting and facilitating foreign investment in the IT sector and transforming the youth bulge into Information Technology savvy Human Resource for large-scale entry of the country into the fast-growing international IT market. This, he said, would help in building Pakistan’s image, harnessing its business potential and promoting the export of the country’s IT services and products around the world.

President Dr. Arif Alvi expressed these views while talking to a delegation of DigitalOcean, led by its CEO, Yancy Spruill, who called on him, at Aiwan-e-Sadr, on Wednesday.

The President said that a high level of commitment, taking the right decisions at the right time and implementing policies and decisions on a timeline basis was needed both at the federal and provincial levels to create a well-integrated and functional IT ecosystem in Pakistan to fully capitalize on the vibrancy of the youth, improve Pakistan’s IT exports by further improving the investment climate and imparting speedy but quality IT computer programming, Artificial Intelligence and computing skills to our huge youth bulge which was already contributing to the growth and progress of the IT sector in Pakistan.

President Dr. Arif Alvi urged the need for the bureaucracy to assist all investors including foreign established and well-reputed IT firms and companies, keep their doors open, welcome investors warmly, help them complete their procedural requirements on a timeline basis and resolve their issues with due diligence on a top priority basis.

He said that the government was focusing to review the entire education system of the country to transform it from a non-market to a market-oriented system by imparting market-oriented knowledge, techniques, and skills to graduates to enable them to be readily absorbed in the market and play their role in the development of the country.

President Dr. Arif Alvi appreciated DigitalOcean for investing in Pakistan by acquiring a Pakistani IT company at $350 million, which was the largest IT acquisition in the history of Pakistan. He said that the step would help in the exponential growth of Pakistan’s IT companies, besides helping IT professionals and companies to promote and enlarge their businesses, services, and outreach.

The President emphasized that DigitalOcean should take tangible steps for imparting high-quality training to the youth which would provide them with an excellent resource for their operations, besides helping the start-ups to scale up their existing ventures and encouraging other IT companies to benefit from the services of DigitalOcean.

He said that DigitalOcean’s slogan “IT for All” would help in the large-scale entry of Pakistan’s youth into the fast-growing international IT market, besides helping build Pakistan’s image, harnessing its business potential and promoting the export of the country’s IT services and products around the world.

He also cited the example of PM’s digiskills programme where 2.5 million people from different educational backgrounds participated and 1 million completed their training and were earning decent livelihoods. He said that Presidential Initiative on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Computing (PIAIC) sensitized the youth and IT-skilled persons regarding the importance of AI and Computing for the growth and development of all sectors of the economy.

During the meeting, the CEO of DigitalOcean, Yancey Spruill, briefed the President about DigitalOcean, its growth strategy in Pakistan, future investments, and tripling its business size in Karachi. The delegation also exchanged ideas on areas of social impact that the company should especially focus on in Pakistan.

DigitalOcean is a US multinational technology company and cloud service provider that provides developers, start-ups, and Small and Medium Businesses with could infrastructure-as-a-service platform.