KARACHI: A United Arab Emirates-based multidisciplinary virtual assets investment consultancy company has collaborated with a Pakistani software house to import healthcare services for the Saudi market, informed the company’s top official earlier this week.
Headquartered in Dubai, PXDX deals in healthcare training and services in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region where it manages its operations.
“We started collaboration in Pakistan and we had a project and we will be getting cooperation with a local software house in Pakistan and we will be importing their services to Saudi Arabia,” Dr. Rehan Al Taji, the founding CEO of PXDX and Gabriel Jobs, KSA, told Arab News without divulging the name of the Pakistani business entity.
The conversation took place on the sidelines of the seventh edition of The Future Summit, a two-day event that brought together futurists, business experts, innovative thinkers and investors at a local hotel in Karachi on Nov. 15.
“We will not only be offering services to hospitals but also extend our services to other sectors. However, we will start with the healthcare sector,” he continued without sharing further details.
Taji, who said he was visiting Pakistan third time, said he was deeply impressed by the performance of Pakistani startups which he described as “smart and innovative.”
“We saw Pakistani startups coming as a second runner up after Saudi startup in previous events like LEAP [tech conference] in Riyadh a few months back,” he said. “They are great.”
The PXDX and Gabriel Jobs chief said there were huge opportunities for Pakistani startups under Vision 2030, a program introduced by the Saudi authorities to diversify the kingdom’s economy and reduce its dependency on oil.
“Pakistani startups can extend their business in Saudi Arabia because now they [the Saudi authorities] are allowing it. With the help of Saudi businesses, they can establish their own companies there which will be 100 percent in their name and under their own ownership,” Taji continued, adding the opportunities were getting more rampant and easier to tap for foreign investors in the kingdom.
Under Vision 2030, the Saudi government is trying to develop, among other things, public service sectors such as health, education, infrastructure, recreation and tourism.
Speaking to Arab News, Dana Al Salem, a Kuwaiti global tech entrepreneur, investor and innovation expert said Vision 2030 had clear objectives.
“The countries that are attracting a lot of investors have a very clear purpose which they share with the world,” he said. “For example, Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 [is] super clear.”
Al Salem, who participated as a speaker at the summit, said Pakistan needed to work on its image abroad.
“Changing people's perspectives on Pakistan is very important,” she maintained.
The Kuwaiti expert advised Pakistan to focus on the agriculture sector for addressing food shortage concerns that countries around the world are facing, saying the South Asian nation was blessed with water resources which can help it increase its overall yield.
UAE-based firm partners with Pakistani software house to provide healthcare services to Saudi Arabia
https://arab.news/28j7s
UAE-based firm partners with Pakistani software house to provide healthcare services to Saudi Arabia
- The firm’s CEO says it will start with healthcare sector before expanding operations elsewhere in the kingdom
- A Middle Eastern investment expert asks Pakistan to improve its image abroad and focus more on agriculture
Back from Iran, Pakistani students say they heard gunshots while confined to campus
- Students say they were confined to dormitories and unable to leave campuses amid unrest
- Pakistani students stayed in touch with families through the embassy amid Internet blackout
ISLAMABAD: Pakistani students returning from Iran on Thursday said they heard gunshots and stories of rioting and violence while being confined to campus and not allowed out of their dormitories in the evening.
Iran’s leadership is trying to quell the worst domestic unrest since its 1979 revolution, with a rights group putting the death toll over 2,600.
As the protests swell, Tehran is seeking to deter US President Donald Trump’s repeated threats to intervene on behalf of anti-government protesters.
“During nighttime, we would sit inside and we would hear gunshots,” Shahanshah Abbas, a fourth-year student at Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, said at the Islamabad airport.
“The situation down there is that riots have been happening everywhere. People are dying. Force is being used.”
Abbas said students at the university were not allowed to leave campus and told to stay in their dormitories after 4 p.m.
“There was nothing happening on campus,” Abbas said, but in his interactions with Iranians, he heard stories of violence and chaos.
“The surrounding areas, like banks, mosques, they were damaged, set on fire ... so things were really bad.”
Trump has repeatedly threatened to intervene in support of protesters in Iran but adopted a wait-and-see posture on Thursday after protests appeared to have abated. Information flows have been hampered by an Internet blackout for a week.
“We were not allowed to go out of the university,” said Arslan Haider, a student in his final year. “The riots would mostly start later in the day.”
Haider said he was unable to contact his family due to the blackout but “now that they opened international calls, the students are getting back because their parents were concerned.”
A Pakistani diplomat in Tehran said the embassy was getting calls from many of the 3,500 students in Iran to send messages to their families back home.
“Since they don’t have Internet connections to make WhatsApp and other social network calls, what they do is they contact the embassy from local phone numbers and tell us to inform their families.”
Rimsha Akbar, who was in the middle of her final year exams at Isfahan, said international students were kept safe.
“Iranians would tell us if we are talking on Snapchat or if we were riding in a cab ... that shelling had happened, tear gas had happened, and that a lot of people were killed.”
