ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Caretaker IT Minister Umar Saif announced he was heading to Saudi Arabia on Saturday with a delegation of IT companies, hoping the visit would materialize in investments and “big business” for Pakistani companies operating in the Kingdom.
The delegation will represent the country’s Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC), a civil-military forum established in June to attract foreign funding, especially from Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, by streamlining bureaucratic procedures for businesses looking to set up operations in Pakistan.
The SIFC has pinpointed five key sectors for attracting investment: agriculture, mining, information technology, defense production, and energy.
“Taking Pakistan’s delegation of IT companies to KSA,” the minister announced on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.
“InshAllah this will result in investments in Pakistan and big business for Pakistani IT companies in Saudia,” he added.
During an exclusive interview with Arab News earlier this week, Saif said the GCC market was a highly attractive one for Pakistani IT firms, many of whom were already engaged in projects in the region.
“We are working to market Pakistan as a place from where a lot of technical expertise can come for projects in the GCC region,” he had said.
The minister added that during his visit to the Kingdom, the Pakistani delegation will also receive updates on the $100 million Saudi-Pakistan Tech House project announced earlier this year, which aims to strengthen strategic partnerships between IT firms in both countries.
The initiative, initially introduced by Prince Fahad bin Mansour at the Future Fest 2023 in Pakistan in January, perfectly aligns with Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030, focusing on economic diversification, reduced oil dependency, and the establishment of a global investment hub with a robust digital infrastructure.
Saif also said Pakistan had a whopping 194 million cellphone users and 70 million broadband users, saying that it reflected the country’s potential in the IT sector. He, however, admitted that Pakistan lacked adequate fiber infrastructure and data connectivity.
“All these things offer great investment opportunities to big companies in the GCC region and Saudi Arabia to come and invest in these large projects that will certainly move Pakistan’s economy forward and offer very good investment opportunities to people outside this country,” the minister said.
Earlier this month, Pakistan’s Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar announced that Saudi Arabia and the UAE had pledged to invest $25 billion each over the next two to five years, in various projects under the SIFC’s umbrella.
