ISLAMABAD: Caretaker Information Technology Minister Umar Saif will embark on an official visit to Saudi Arabia on Saturday to discuss job opportunities for skilled Pakistanis in the kingdom’s thriving IT sector and to get an update on a $100 million Saudi-Pakistan Tech House project announced earlier this year.

The project aims to foster a strategic partnership between IT firms and enterprises based in the two countries. It was first mentioned by Prince Fahad bin Mansour at Future Fest 2023, organized in Pakistan in January.

This joint technology initiative aligns perfectly with Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030, which seeks to diversify its economy by reducing dependence on oil and transforming into a global investment hub with robust digital infrastructure.

“I am going to the kingdom to witness the revolution that is happening in Saudi Arabia where, because of the vision of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the country has transformed itself at a revolutionary pace as a modern and forward-looking economy beyond the petrodollars and toward the knowledge economy, an economy that moves forward because of the use of technology,” the minister told Arab News in an interview on Wednesday.

He said that numerous Indian, Irish and other global companies were participating in the revolution, emphasizing that Pakistan’s tech-savvy youth and IT firms also had the potential to significantly contribute to Vision 2030.

“So, that is one part of what I hope to discuss during my visit to Saudi Arabia,” he continued. “The second part is Pakistan’s attraction as a big opportunity for investments in the technology sector since it is at the cusp of taking off in terms of a technology revolution that is about to unfold in this country.”

Saif said he wanted to encourage people to explore investment opportunities in Pakistan by highlighting the benefits of the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC), a civil-military forum established in June to attract foreign funding by streamlining bureaucratic procedures for businesses looking to set up operations in the country.

Discussing Prince Mansour’s Tech House project, he said he was looking forward to his meeting with the Saudi royal to get an update on its progress.

The minister noted that the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) market was highly attractive for Pakistani IT firms, many of which 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 added.

He noted that with 85 percent unbanked adult population in the country, Pakistan had great investment opportunities in fintech and edtech sectors alongside cellphone manufacturing.

Saif said the country had 194 million cellphone and 70 million broadband users, reflecting its potential in the IT sector, though it 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,” he said.

The minister said Pakistan’s official IT exports were $2.6 billion, adding that the actual figure should be higher due to funds kept at the overseas locations with favorable taxation and repatriation policies.

“Of course, we are trying to fix that and will soon begin to see the true potential of Pakistan’s IT industry,” he said.

Asked about the longstanding property-transfer dispute with the United Arab Emirates’ Etisalat telecom company involving $800 million, he said Pakistan was about to do a 5G auction of new spectrum to bring fresh investment which made it imperative for the country to resolve the issue soon.

“We have to be realistic in terms of how much that asset is worth and I think our friends at Etisalat also need to take a strategic view of [the situation],” he added. “Where we can see value, they can also resolve it and so that we can get on with business and we can unlock the bigger opportunities for Etisalat and similar GCC companies coming in.”

The minister said Pakistan had the second largest online workforce in the world, with about half a million freelancers who found it receive their payments.

“We are working with PayPal to bring it in [Pakistan] following the Egypt model, where they have partnered with Visa,” he added.

Saif said Pakistan was also hoping to finalize a deal within the next 60 days with Stripe, another payment processing platform, along the same model.