Great opportunities await Pakistan in UAE in AI, IT fields: envoy

ISLAMABAD: Faisal Niaz Tirmizi, Pakistan’s Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates, has said great opportunities await Pakistan in the UAE in the fields of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Information Technology (IT) because the UAE is transforming into an AI and IT-based country and is probably the first country to appoint a full-fledged minister for AI.

In an interview the other day, he said AI happens to be everything now. “This is a transformational movement that the world witnessed with the creation of steam engines, electricity, telecommunication, and computers and now this is the new frontier.

“They have planned to add around 100 billion dollars to the country’s economy in the next five to six years through AI because this is the new way to artificially use all the information that we are gathering through IT technology to make better decisions for governance, health issues, tourism, banking and different fields.”

The envoy added: “This is our opportunity because we have the 60 per cent youth bulge which not many countries have and frankly this is our opportunity. Our total exports at present are only 3.5 billion dollars. Our potential is much more. After the US and the UK, the UAE is the third biggest export destination in terms of IT Pakistan.

“So we joined it because there was a big exhibition in Dubai a couple of months ago, JITEX, where Pakistan was declared the tech destination and we had a big presence. So this time we have over 11 companies here specifically dealing with AI and now they have signed deals with their counterparts from all across the world to showcase Pakistan that we have the potential to improve, to contribute to the global economy.”

Tirmizi said: “The whole theme of this conference was to make the connections between the Pakistani companies and their counterparts not only in the Gulf but globally because all major IT companies were represented in this global AI exhibition and that’s what we are trying to do that we have the expertise and we can contribute because the world will be transformed.

“If you want to see the effect of AI you have to come to this country where everything is being driven through a click of a button through your smartphone and that’s why we said that we have the potential to make the connections between people who are working on AI in Pakistan with their counterparts all across the world.

”Pakistan has the youth bulge, we have the universities that are producing, and some of the universities are really producing world-class people who are working in AI like NUST, LUMS, and a few institutes like FAST.”

The ambassador recalled that Pakistani companies were already giving a lot of back-office support to several organisations like ITTISALAT, Rasul Khaymar Bank, DIAB, and Dubai Islamic Bank in Pakistan.

“So that was the first step but now we are saying that we have the expertise that we can take those collaborations to the AI level and increase the turnover of businesses many folds.” Tirmizi said: “At present our AI, IT exports to the UAE are around 300 million dollars. We are hoping to cross the magical figure of a billion dollars within this year.”

He revealed that the biggest IT investment in UAE has been by a Pakistani with Careem, which was sold for 3.2 billion dollars but that has created a lot of opportunities for the Pakistanis not only within the GCC but also on the Silicon Valley. “So we have to create an environment within Pakistan that those companies could stay here,” he said, adding “At certain stage we would encourage all these investors who have made big not only in the GCC but also on the Silicon Valley to come back to Pakistan and invest in this country because it’s a natural connector between Central Asia, South Asia and Middle East.”