UNIDO ITPO Tokyo organized “Pakistan ICT Seminar & Business Matching (online)” on 28 April 2021, jointly with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
Mr. Nobuhiro Kawatani, Director of South Asia Division 2 of JICA made a presentation on the attractiveness of Pakistan as an investment destination and on JICA’s assistance schemes to Japanese companies. Pakistan has the world’s 5th largest population of 210 million population, of which 60 percent are under 30 years of age. The middle class population currently estimated around 32.5% of the population is growing. The country has comparative advantages over major cities in Southeast and South Asia in competitive wage levels and abundant supply of human resources. Pakistan has improved the business environment, as is seen in the sharp rise of Pakistan’s ranking in the Ease of Doing Business Report of the World Bank. Mr. Kitatani further introduced JICA’s various assistance schemes for Japanese companies who are interested to do business and those with appropriate technologies contributing to solving problems in developing countries.
Mr. Ajmal A. Awan, Member, International Coordination of Pakistan IT & Telecom Ministry (MoITT) introduced the vision of “Digital Pakistan” which includes 1) Enhancing connectivity, 2) Improving digital infrastructure, 3) Increasing investment in digital skills, 4) Promoting innovation and 5) Promoting tech entrepreneurs. Mr. Awan also explained about the government’s digital transformation strategy with policy/legislative interventions. As of today 5 National Incubation Centers have been established in the country to assist IT start-ups. MoITT has conducted over 1.5 million trainings since 2018 to equip Pakistan citizens with in-demand technical skills under Digiskills Traing Program.
Mr. Awan emphasized the advantages of Pakistan in ICT industry referring to 1) ICT-related exports of Pakistan directed to more than 100 countries have increased by 70% over the past 3 years, 2) Pakistan currently has around 5,000 ICT companies with 0.5 million ICT engineers, adding 20,000 new graduates into ICT labor force each year, and 3) the number of freelancers in Pakistan is the 4th largest in the world, of which 70% are under 30 years of age. To conclude his presentation, Mr. Awan referred to a survey that there will be a shortage of 590,000 ICT engineers in Japan by 2030, and encouraged Japanese businesses to pay more attention to the potential of Pakistan ICT personnel.
Two (2) Pakistan ICT companies and 4 ICT start-ups made presentations on their company outlines and technical skills, looking for cooperation with Japanese entrepreneurs. Six (6) individual meetings were organized between Pakistan and Japanese companies after the seminar.
*To view the presentation slides, click the presentation titles in the programme below.
Seminar Outline:
Date/Time: 28 April 2021 (Wed) Seminar: 14:00-15:50 (JST)
Business Matching: 16:00-18:00 (JST)
Format: Online seminar / Live stream on zoom
Organized by: JICA
Co-organized by: UNIDO ITPO Tokyo
Languages: English-Japanese Simultaneous Translation
Programme
14:00-14:30 Opening Remarks / Keynote Speech “Advantages of Pakistan and JICA Assistance Scheme“
Mr. Nobuhiro Kawatani, Director of South Asia Division 2, South Asia Dept., JICA
14:30-15:00 Presentation “Pakistan ICT Industry and Human Resources“
Mr. Ajmal Anwar Awan, Member, International Coordination, Ministry of IT & Telecom (MoITT)
15:00-15:50 Presentations by Pakistan ICT Companies and Startups
1. Systems Limited
2. TeReSoL
3. Integry
4. STech.ai
5. DeafTawk
6. Web Works
15:50 End of Seminar
—————————————————————-
16:10-18:00 Online Business Matching (One-on-one Meetings)
List of Pakistan companies participated in the seminar & business matching
| Company Name | Outline | URL |
| ICT Companies | ||
| Systems Limited | A full-service technology consulting and digital business process management company that delivers technology-led solutions to over 400 clients aroung the world. It has strong ties with the Financial Services, Telecom, Public Sector, Retail, and Consumer Goods industries. |
https://www.systemsltd.com/ |
| TeReSoL | A fast-growing R&D company with experienced professionals that design, manufacture and market a range of innovative customized embedded products. The company has been focusing on providing customized embedded solution and software services for Avionics, Consumer Electronics, Automobile and Banking /Financial sector. | http://teresol.com/ |
| Startups | ||
| Integry | Integry provides pre-made app connectors that app builders could pick and add to their apps.With Integry, SaaS companies can add a layer on top of their software that allows anyone to create integrations with it. |
www.integry.io |
| STech.ai | An AI-base company that transforms vision information to data technology. The company provides solutions such as personnel management using face recognition technology and traffic flow regulation, management, and control utilizing traffic and video analysis. | https://stech.ai/ |
| DeafTawk | DeafTawk provides an app that connects deaf people to sign language interpreters through video call. | www.deaftawk.com |
| Web Works | Web Works developed the brand images for many of Pakistan’s major apparel brand websites and launched online shopping sites for companies including mobile apps. The company alsoprovides consulting services such as data analytics for users, logistics support for online shopping, and building the brand image of clients. | https://webworksglobal.com/ |
