LAHORE: Saudi Arabia’s Prince Fahad bin Mansour Al Saud has announced to set up a technology house in Pakistan to enhance cooperation between the two countries in diverse technical fields, the Future Fest management said on Friday.

Pakistan’s biggest tech conference, Future Fest 2023 is a three-day event that has brought together 50,000 participants along with representatives of 500 startups and 200 exhibitors from over 30 countries. After premiering in Islamabad last year, its second edition is currently taking place in Lahore where it has been organized in collaboration with the Punjab provincial administration and information technology board.

The conference, which is scheduled to end on January 8, features keynote speeches and discussions by investors, innovators, thought leaders, policymakers and leading entrepreneurs.

This year’s conference is particularly important for the Saudi-Pakistan relations since it has brought a bunch of business leaders and entrepreneurs from the kingdom and other Middle East countries.

The Saudi delegation participating in the event includes senior representatives from Riyadh-based Digital Cooperation Organization and Invest Saudi, which works under the kingdom’s investment ministry.

“HRH [His Royal Highness] Prince Fahad bin Mansour Al Saud, during a virtual address to Future Fest stakeholders, announced the establishment of a dedicated Saudi-Pakistan Tech House to promote greater ease of doing business,” said the festival management in an official statement.

The Saudi prince is also the co-founder of technology giant, ILSA Interactive, which was founded by a Pakistani entrepreneur, Salman Nasir, in 2009. Back then, he announced over 300 projects for the company while hoping they would create more than a thousand jobs in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and other parts of the world.

“I’m deeply honored to be a part of such a respected and prestigious gathering of the IT industry with thought leaders of Pakistan at the country’s largest tech conference and expo, Future Fest 2023,” the Saudi prince said.

He confirmed the technology house would be headquartered in Riyadh with its first branch in Lahore.

Meanwhile, representatives of various Saudi companies attending the event said there was immense business potential in Pakistan while applauding the technical skills among the country’s young workforce.

Ayman Jaber, chief internal auditor of a Saudi fintech company, Hala, said he was “grateful” to be in Pakistan for the event.

“It [Pakistan] is a full potential market for a lot of things, a lot of aspects, even to support the market itself or looking for partnerships with companies as a vendor,” he told Arab News.

“They have a really talented resource that can assist us in building the company,” he continued. “So, we are here in three dimensions and we are really having a fruitful result from this trip.”

Mujtaba Hussain, general manager of the global edtech platform, Noon, based in Saudi Arabia, said his company had a special focus on the Middle East, North Africa and Pakistan. He noted that Noon had already been working in Pakistan for the past two years.

“Pakistan, in edtech, is a very, very large opportunity for anyone who’d want to come in,” he maintained. “The industry has very few players who are trying to do a lot of things.”

Hussain said the problems related to Pakistan’s education sector were “large enough,” adding that global edtechs should assist the South Asian country resolve those issues.

“We’ve been doing that for two-and-a-half years and our experience has been absolutely amazing,” he continued.

Hussain said that his organization was operating in five countries, though the level of commitment among its Pakistani employees was not seen elsewhere.

“In Pakistan, we’ve seen this through and through that the commitment of employees has been up there, the talent quality is up there, their comprehension of problems locally and in other markets is up there,” he said.