US special envoy says focus on growing economic ties with Pakistan

KARACHI: US Special Representative for Commercial and Business Affairs Dilawar Syed on Thursday underscored the US government’s commitment to growing US-Pakistan commercial and economic ties. “The United States will keep working to broaden bilateral trade, boost investment and expand entrepreneurial and educational opportunities for all as part of our effort to build on 75 years of US-Pakistan economic cooperation," Syed said at a panel discussion on “Promoting US-Pakistan Innovation and Investment” at the National Incubation Centre (NICK), Karachi, at the NED University of Engineering and Technology.

Minister for Information Technology Syed Amin-ul- Haq also participated in the discussion. Dr Syed Akbar Zaidi, executive director of the Institute of Business Administration, and Atif Rais Khan, founder and CEO of technology company LMKT, were the co-speakers in the discussion.

Syed said the US investors are attracted to the Pakistani market because of its large, young population and its entrepreneurial spirit. Appreciating Pakistani women entrepreneurs who have successfully established their own businesses, Syed said that the US supports empowering Pakistani women and girls. He stressed on the importance of nurturing sustainable and inclusive economic growth for Pakistan’s long-term prosperity and suggested that “boosting digital and financial literacy for women and marginalised groups, for example, will help ensure Pakistan can realise its entrepreneurial potential.”

The US special representative and the IT minister also held a meeting and discussed avenues of mutual cooperation to strengthen Pakistan’s entrepreneurship ecosystem. Following the meeting, they toured the centre along with NICK officials and met with Pakistani entrepreneurs.

The National Incubation Centres played a significant role in promotion of entrepreneurship and the number of startups crossed 1,000 in the country, which created hundreds of employment opportunities, he said and informed that financial volume of startups remarkably increased five times (500 percent) to $373 million from $75 million in FY2019-20.

Minister Syed Amin-ul- Haq said Pakistan was ambitiously working to achieve $15 billion IT exports in the coming three years. “Pakistan’s IT exports reached $2.6 bn in 2021-22 while target for FY2022-23 was set at $3 billion and the IT ministry was fully determined to enhance the figure to $15 billion under a three-year plan.”

Amin-ul-Haq said following the vision of Digital Pakistan, the IT ministry has taken multiple steps for promotion of the sector, which resulted in expansion of internet connectivity, broadband and cellular coverage in the country, adding that, nowadays, 193 million Pakistanis had mobile phones and internet connectivity while earlier in FY2018-19 the figure was 160 million.

By ensuring a steady monthly growth of broadband coverage and expansion of 4G technology, the government is eyeing the launch of 5G in Pakistan during the ongoing year, Aminul Haq said. After digitalization of all the federal ministries and paperless cabinet meetings, now we are working to materialise the objective of paperless parliament till coming March, the federal IT minister said.

The IT minister, emphasizing on the importance of gender inclusiveness in national development, informed that there was 36 percent representation of females in NICs and the ratio would be raised to 50 percent in the coming year.