ISLAMABAD, Jun 20 (APP):Pakistan’s High Commissioner to Canada Raza Bashir Tarar Saturday said keeping in view the COVID-19 pandemic,
the business and trade between Pakistan and Canada could be promoted well by taking the advantage of the information technology.
Addressing a virtual session of Global Pakistan Tech Summit arranged by startup grind, Pakistan chapter, the high commissioner said use of IT would mitigate the economic fallout from this pandemic, said a news release received here.
He emphasized that Pakistani entrepreneurs to look into the areas of possible collaboration in a wide range of sectors, including education, financial services, professional services, manufacturing, construction, transportation, oil and gas, natural resources, ICT, and public sector.
The high commissioner said that Pakistan’s Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication had also adopted facilitative approach towards IT industry and interaction with public sector stakeholders resulting in better coordination.
“Digital development is on the rise and as per the figures released by the State Bank of Pakistan, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the information and communication sector for the period July 2019-March 2020 was
US $ 491.3 billion” he added.
He informed that Pakistan Software Expert Board (PSEB) an organization under the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication (MoIT&T) had shown a growth of 23.94 period for the same period.
The discussion focused on facilitating the startups and addressing the challenges they face. There was a consensus that the startups needed to be science driven and having academic and business rigour.
It was also noted that to promote business activities, the work ethics and the business environment of a country needed to be taken into consideration.
Canadian High Commissioner in Islamabad Wendy Gilmour, who also participated in the summit, expressed her satisfaction with the IT experts employed by Canadian companies from Pakistan with special reference to Faisalabad.
She also expressed her appreciation for the high quality of software development in Pakistan.
