WASHINGTON, Nov 02 (APP): Pakistan provides ideal conditions for the American investors and entrepreneurs to explore, invest and expand their businesses, Ambassador Masood Khan told a delegation of young Pakistani entrepreneurs now on a visit to the United States.
In this regard, the Pakistani envoy cited factors such as the country’ population of 230 million, a median age of 22, fast-growing middle classes, more than 110 million mobile broadband subscribers, and a tech savvy young human capital.
The delegation is visiting US on a State Department’s Professional Fellows Programme (Entrepreneurship) in partnership with the University of Oklahoma.
It is comprised of Ms. Yumna Iftikhar, Manager of the Business Incubation, Balochistan; Zeeshan Khan of the Founder Celebrity Soul, Ms. Rabbia Iqbal, Senior Manager of the Organizational Development & Total Rewards Jungu Tech Pvt., Ltd., and Ali Bin Masood, CEO o the GOHO Rooms. These entrepreneurs were running hotel management, tourism, incubation and acceleration, B2B (business to business) retail supply and travel blogging businesses.
The programme empowers, connects and supports the next generation of young entrepreneurs from the four South Asian emerging economies — Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka — by providing them the access and opportunity needed to advance their careers. The fellows work with entrepreneurs in Oklahoma who focus on the same business sectors as them and learn the best practices from each other. This year five successful, creative, innovative Pakistani youth entrepreneurs were selected from Pakistan out of the total 20 participants from 4 different countries.
In his remarks to the delegation, Ambassador Masood Khan described Pakistani young entrepreneurs as engines of growth, and with their talent and expertise are the architects of the country’s bright future.”
The Ambassador congratulated young entrepreneurs on being selected for the programme and getting an opportunity to represent the country at an international stage. He also appreciated the utility of such exchange programmes and advised the participants to use the opportunity as a platform to further strengthen their networks and forge robust professional linkages.
While highlighting the impressive performance of Pakistan’s exports to the US market, he acknowledged that in the past 18 months, the Pakistan-based tech startups alone have earned around $1.5 billion out of which 60% has been funded by US-based Venture Capital firms primarily in San Francisco. Top American Venture Capital firms like Kleiner Perkins, Tiger Global and Sequia have started funding Pakistan’s successful startups at the pre-seed, seed and incubation stages.
Masood Khan emphasized the need for a continued Pakistan and the United States engagement to further promote trade and investment between the two countries as well as to enhance cooperation in the health, agriculture and tech sectors.
Concerted efforts were being made, he said, to create strong linkages at all levels including government-to-government, business-to-business and most importantly people-to-people contacts.
Responding to the questions by the group, the Ambassador said that Pakistan is streamlining its tax system to attract more tech startups, and also taking additional steps to build tourism infrastructure sufficiently equipped to host foreign tourists. The Ambassador also identified several business opportunities for the entrepreneurs to link up with their potential counterparts.
The visit of Pakistani entrepreneurs took place at a time when the United States is celebrating National Entrepreneurship Month. President Joe Biden, in his proclamation, said that during this month “we celebrate the doers, dreamers and job creators whose vision and grit fuel our economy.”