A webinar to highlight Pakistan’s IT potential for giving a boost to the steady economic progress in the country was organized by the Pakistan Consulate General here. The Ambassador of Pakistan to the United States, Asad Majeed Khan, welcomed the participants to the webinar titled “Pakistan-US IT Cooperation: Unlocking the Potential”.
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Federal Secretary (IT & Telecommunications) Shoaib Ahmad Siddiqui, CEO of National IT Board, Shabahat Ali Shah, and Chairman of the Pakistan Software Houses Association Shahzad Shahid also spoke on the occasion. Chairman and CEO of Netsol Technologies Incorporated Najeeb Ghauri and Founder and co-CEO of Techlogix Kewan Khawaja led the panel of Pakistani-American IT entrepreneurs.
The Consul-General in New York, Ayesha Ali, underscored the importance of the event in spotlighting the IT potential of Pakistan. She said that the purpose of the webinar was to apprise the US IT companies, particularly on the East Coast, of the immense strides made by Pakistan in this sector and to explore opportunities of enhancing Pakistan-US IT cooperation.
In his remarks, Ambassador Asad Khan emphasized that the IT sector was one of the best performing sectors of Pakistan’s economy. As a result of government’s policy, there had been phenomenal growth in the IT sector in the last two years. The governments of Pakistan and the US have identified business and investment as key priority and are working together to engage the private sector.
The post-coronavirus situation, with increasing focus on IT technologies, offered new opportunities to Pakistan and US to further enhance their IT cooperation, the Pakistani envoy said, adding that he intended to hold more such events.
Siddiqui, the IT & Telecommunications secretary, gave an overview of the government’s incentives and explained the regulatory mechanism governing the IT sector in Pakistan.
The CEO of the National IT Board, Shabahat Ali Shah, informed the audience about the initiative of the International Payments Gateway which once in place would provide an opportunity to small, medium and free-lance entrepreneurs in Pakistan to position their products in the international market and get their remittances online through the same gateway. These channelized payments would further augment tax collections on one hand and increase exports on the other hand, he added.
Originally published at: brecorder