ISLAMABAD: President Dr Arif Alvi on Friday said that Pakistan may have lost time, but it is not too late to jump on to the technology bandwagon.

“Why did we need Covid-19 to adapt to tools that have been around for years?” He emphasised that we can’t afford to lose our youth to foreign countries. “We want to equip them to work and earn in Pakistan.”

He noted that many chronic structural issues were being steadily addressed, and that he is personally engaging with industry and entrepreneurs to solve problems.

President Alvi was speaking on the occasion of the launch of think tank and advisory firm Tabadlab’s working paper ‘Energising the Tech Investment Ecosystem in Pakistan.

Chairperson Special Technology Zones Authority (STZA) Amer Hashmi also spoke at the event, urging policy makers and industry leaders to read the paper and implement its recommendations.

“It is fortunate that the STZA bill has been passed by the Senate and has been sent to the president today to sign it into an act of parliament.”

Mr Hashmi spoke about the boom in investment in Pakistani tech startups, noting how the establishment of special technology zones with tax and regulatory incentives will attract and keep venture capitalists in Pakistan.

CEO Tabadlab Mosharraf Zaidi highlighted the dynamism in startup funding despite the developing situation in Afghanistan, the devaluation of the rupee and rising current account deficit.

Co-authored by Aliza Amin, Hammad Haider, Ali Khizar and Umar Nadeem, the paper has been published by Tabadlab’s Centre for Digital Transformation.

“The fiscal and monetary pressures on the economy will be addressed through increased exports and higher FDI, both of which will be increasingly informed by the technology ecosystem.”

Earlier on Thursday, President Dr Arif Alvi speaking at the closing ceremony of an event held for creating awareness of protection against harassment, shared his views about workplace harassment and women’s property rights, and appreciated Federal Ombudswoman Kashmala Tariq for her efforts in this regard.

The president stated that he believed that every women sitting in this hall might have faced harassment of any form in their life time at least for once.

He said women would remain vulnerable to physical and mental violence unless they are made financially independent.

Federal Ombudswoman for Protection against Harassment Kashmala Tariq hosted the event for creating awareness regarding Protection Against Harassment and Women’s Property Rights at President Secretariat, Islamabad.

Besides President Alvi, Country Representative UN Women Pakistan Sharmeela Rassool, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Poverty Alleviation and Social Protection Sania Nishtar, a number of senators and ambassadors and people from all spheres of life justified the slogan “Inclusion not Seclusion” given by Kashmala Tariq.

The purpose behind the slogan was to amplify the importance of both genders being equally responsible for the betterment of whole society.

Published in Dawn, October 2nd, 2021