Pakistan has unveiled the blueprint to build a knowledge-driven tech economy by investing in and empowering the youth of the country.
The world’s 5th largest country of 233-million people with more than 50 percent Gen-Z population, traditionally known for its agrarian economy, recently passed milestone legislation that aims to create jobs in the tech sector, capitalize on youth dividends and enable technology-driven economic growth.
Amer Ahmed Hashmi, the Chairman of Special Technology Zones Authority (STZA), Pakistan’s top organization established in 2021 to oversee the country’s ambitious plans to develop a high-tech economy for rapid economic growth.
“STZA offers the institutional and legislative support to Pakistan’s technology sector that the industry was lacking to unlock its full potential. This is the first time we have a government institution within the Prime Minister’s office with one mission: To transform Pakistan into a tech-driven entrepreneurial nation spearheading the economic growth” says Hashmi. Prime Minister Imran Khan understood the urgent need for a tech-based knowledge economy and took full ownership and has championed the strategic initiative – STZA.
For the last 40 years, the country’s export economy has remained limited to specific industries that have struggled to grow Pakistan’s exports significantly, requiring a new economic mix for GDP growth.
Tech has been the key missing piece of the export puzzle that STZA is bringing to the system, points out Hashmi. Pakistan made significant progress in the digital space as information technology (IT) exports crossed the $2 billion mark for the first time this year.
Though encouraging, the numbers are significantly lower than Pakistan’s immediate neighbor India which boasts a $190 billion IT industry (exports and domestic).
Amer Hashmi joined STZA in February 2021 bringing over 25 years of global experience in business, technology, and academia in Pakistan, and other countries such as the US, UK, Russia, China, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Canada. Most importantly, he brings passion, positivity, and a go-getter attitude to the organization that has many young men and women in leadership positions.
Hashmi strongly believes that young people are the “most valuable asset of Pakistan” and hence it is essential to invest in human capital.
Pakistan’s tech authority chairman who witnessed the tech boom working in the heart of Silicon Valley in the mid-1990s said that the organization was structured based on best practices after studying the tech zone models in 55 countries in Europe, the US, and Asia.
Outlining the strategy to make Pakistan a technology powerhouse, Hashmi shared with Gulf News that the organization will set up 14 world-class tech zones across the country by June 2022.
“These zones will create thousands of jobs for youth, attract foreign investors and global companies, boost tech and IT exports, generate high-skilled workforce, and develop Pakistan’s IT industry and entrepreneurship ecosystem.” Job creation, human capital development, technology transfer, increasing IT exports, and incentivize import substitution, foreign direct investment is some of the broad-based goals of STZA.
Pakistan’s tech authority chairman who witnessed the tech boom working in the heart of Silicon Valley in the mid-1990s said that the organization was structured based on best practices after studying the tech zone models in 55 countries in Europe, the US, and Asia.
Outlining the strategy to make Pakistan a technology powerhouse, Hashmi shared with Gulf News that the organization will set up 14 world-class tech zones across the country by June 2022.
“These zones will create thousands of jobs for youth, attract foreign investors and global companies, boost tech and IT exports, generate high-skilled workforce, and develop Pakistan’s IT industry and entrepreneurship ecosystem.” Job creation, human capital development, technology transfer, increasing IT exports, and incentivize import substitution, foreign direct investment are some of the broad-based goals of STZA.
Focus on high-skilled workforce
Pakistan now has the world’s third-largest number of freelancers in IT and IT-enabled services and 42 percent of them are software developers. Hashmi says that country must “move beyond low-hanging fruits of only billing labor hours.
Pakistan must create new high-tech industries such as cyber security solutions, systems integration, data center, strategic IT outsourcing, and cloud services. The idea behind STZA is to create diversified zones with some focusing on high-end technology such as machine learning, blockchain, and artificial intelligence.”
Talking about some of the difficulties, Hashmi says the biggest challenge has been to overcome the mindset barriers that limit the potential of people. Another critical question is: Can Pakistan build a high-quality tech workforce at a globally competitive price?
“The global job market is changing and Pakistan needs to make an agile workforce in technology to move with the global demand and requirement of local industry,” says Hashmi. Pakistan’s government is making all efforts to level up the skill set with high-powered training courses for young professionals. “The government support and re-forms will allow companies to seize the global digital economy opportunities and trans-form country’s IT sector.”
2021 has been a phenomenal year for Pakistani startups that raised $278 million this year, about four times more than they did last year, according to Invest2Innovate (i2i) data. E-commerce and fintech were among the most well-funded sectors.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Technology Express staff and is published from a syndicated feed)
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