“With the digitization of necessary information, including bookings, lodging, transportation and availability of accurate information, the tourism sector of Pakistan would witness a transformative change. Your early participation would pay you off well,” Ambassador Khan said

 

Ambassador Masood Khan Urges Investment in Pakistan’s Tech and Tourism Industries
By Elaine Pasquini

San Francisco: During the Annual Open Silicon Valley Forum of 2023 in the first week of November, Masood Khan, Pakistan’s Ambassador to the United States, told attendees the tech entrepreneurship in Pakistan has taken off and the country is “leapfrogging into a new era of tech industry. A new class of professionals graduating from universities is participating in digitized economy and this is giving a new direction to our economy.”

In addition, he noted, the Pakistani government has created an enabling environment for the growth of the tech and IT sectors including the formation of a Special Investment Facilitation Council aimed at fast-tracking approvals and registrations, overseeing implementation and catalyzing much-needed regulatory reforms, including ensuring stable payment cycles, protection of intellectual property rights and addressing the issues related to repatriation of funds by foreign investors.

Other steps being taken to facilitate ease of doing business include an E-Wallet facility introduced by the State Bank of Pakistan and setting up Special Technology Zones.

All this progress is happening despite the country’s recent economic, political, pandemic and climate challenges.

Having suffered “reputational damage due to the global war of the past four decades, we are making efforts to rebrand our image,” he said.

The ambassador called the country’s population of 235 million with a median age of 22 and a growing middle class of over 80 million “a promising demographic profile that would steer the country toward growth.”

Ambassador Khan also urged Californian entrepreneurs to invest in Pakistan’s tourism industry. “Silicon Valley can make a huge contribution to Pakistan’s tourism and digitization of tourism industry,” he pointed out. “With the digitization of necessary information, including bookings, lodging, transportation and availability of accurate information, the tourism sector of Pakistan would witness a transformative change. Your early participation would pay you off well.”

Pakistan’s rich cultural history and magnificent landscape offers international tourists a broad range of experiences, including mountaineering, rock-climbing and paragliding for sports enthusiasts and adventurers. “The country has everything to offer to every kind of tourist,” he said. “It has the tallest mountains, scorching deserts and captivating coastline. The country still carries relics of its ancient civilizations. We are proud of these and want to show them off to tourists.”

“Pakistanis are loving, caring and welcoming people,” he said. “The country has been a melting pot. We are known for our hospitality and taking care of our guests.”

Ambassador Khan thanked the organizers for this special program “Exploring Pakistan’s Tourism Treasures: From Mountains to Metropolises” which he expected to inspire people to visit Pakistan and get a firsthand experience of witnessing the pristine beauty of the country.”

(Elaine Pasquini is a freelance journalist. Her reports appear in the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs and Nuze.Ink.)