President Alvi underscores need for facilitating foreign investors to invest in the country’s ICT sector

ISLAMABAD, Mar 11 (SABAH): President Dr. Arif Alvi has underscored the need for facilitating foreign investors to invest in the country’s ICT sector which had a huge potential to grow in view of the incentives being provided by the government. He encouraged the relevant stakeholders to facilitate Pakistan origin IT experts, based in Silicon Valley, USA, who wanted to establish IT companies in Pakistan.

President Dr. Arif Alvi made these remarks while chairing a meeting on engaging Pakistani American Diaspora in the ICT sector, at Aiwan-e-Sadr. Advisor to Prime Minister on Commerce and Investment, Abdul Razak Dawood, SAPM on CPEC Affairs, Khalid Mansoor, SAPM on e-Commerce, Senator Aon Abbas Buppi, Secretary Ministry of IT and Telecom, Dr. Muhammad Sohail Rajput, Ambassador-designate of Pakistan to the USA, Sardar Muhammad Masood Khan, representatives of the Higher Education Commission, State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP), and senior officials of the Government attended the meeting. Prominent Pakistani entrepreneurs based in Silicon Valley and Pakistan’s Ambassador in the USA, Dr. Asad Majeed Khan, attended the meeting via video link.

The participants of the meeting were briefed about the progress on the development of the Pakistan National Semiconductor Plan (PNSP). It was informed that measures had been taken to train human resources in the field of semiconductors which has great scope and potential for growth and investment. The participants were also briefed on the electric vehicle batteries manufacturing project, the establishment of Outsourced Semiconductor Assembly Test (OSAT) and related industries.

Addressing the meeting, the President highlighted that the IT industry is growing exponentially and Pakistan needed to focus on training and skill development of its human resources in the ICT sector to meet the requirements of the 4th Industrial Revolution as well as earn foreign exchange. He also underlined the need to take measures for attracting Venture Capital and Private Equity Funds that would help accelerate the economic development of the country. The President assured the USA based IT experts of his cooperation in facilitating investments for the country’s ICT sector.