Pakistan offers best concessions to tech investors: Zakaria

LONDON: High Commissioner Nafees Zakaria has said Pakistan offers the “best concessions to investors in the technology sector” at a forum to mark one year of the launching of the London-based PTEN initiative, where they discussed measures to promote and accelerate Pakistan’s tech exports.

According to a press release issued on Tuesday, the meeting was held last week. Participants included Baroness Nosheena Mubarik — member House of Lords, Shabahat Shah — NITB Pakistan chief executive, Raheel Ahmad - chief products and analytics officer (Barclays UK), Abdul Rehman Qureshi — senior banker and investor UK, Ali Khwaja — chairman KASB Securities, Bilal Qureshi — co-founder PTEN and chief executive of SCT Group and Rashid Iqbal — chief executive of the Pakistan British Business Council.

Zakaria expressed satisfaction that the PTEN initiative had made significant progress since its launch in September 2019 under his patronage. He acknowledged that in the context of his proposal to establish a pavilion or outreach marketing platform at Royal Albert Dock, Pakistan-UK Business Council has played an effective role in the negotiations and the concept for the development of a hub of Pakistani companies. He expressed the hope that emerging Pakistani tech entrepreneurs would be able to benefit from this hub.

Speaking on the occasion, PTEN co-founder Bilal Qureshi dwelt upon Pakistan’s enormous tech potential and shared roadmap for leveraging technology sector in accelerating Pakistan’s exports. Abdul Rehman Qureshi, co-founder PTEN, elaborated the role of PTEN in leveraging technology for women empowerment and poverty alleviation.

Baroness Nosheena Mubarik in her remarks commended the High Commission for this initiative and expressed the hope that new business opportunities would emerge for the benefit of both countries.

Shabahat Shah remarked that fostering emerging tech synergies for digital transformation is a need of 21st century. He further noted that digital transformation for every country had now become mandatory for securing venture investment, inducing transparency and ensuring accountability into governance systems.

At the conclusion of the event, PTEN announced plans for launching London- based tech accelerator for emerging markets start-ups.