ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar emphasized the country’s young and dynamic population was capable of positioning it as a competitive provider of high-quality information technology services while addressing the Digital Foreign Direct Investment (DFDI) forum in Islamabad on Wednesday.
The two-day forum, inaugurated on April 29, is co-hosted by Pakistan and the Riyadh-based Digital Cooperation Organization (DCO). It has brought together over 400 delegates and more than 200 IT and telecom companies from over 30 countries.
The DCO, established in November 2020, is a global multilateral organization that seeks to accelerate the inclusive growth of the digital economy. Its founding members include Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait and Pakistan.
Pakistan is also set to assume the DCO presidency, reflecting the South Asian state’s commitment to digital transformation.
“Digital services exports have become a cornerstone of [Pakistan’s] economic strategy,” Dar said. “Pakistan’s growing pool of highly skilled tech professionals is creating world-class solutions for clients across the globe.”
“With our young, dynamic workforce and expanding capabilities, we are positioning Pakistan as a reliable and competitive source of high-quality digital services,” he continued.
Dar highlighted the country’s demographics as a significant advantage, adding Pakistan had over 140 million Internet users and 73 million smartphone users, making it among the top 10 countries globally in terms of online population.
He also emphasized the opportunities within the DCO region.
“The potential of the DCO region is immense,” he pointed out. “With a combined GDP of $3.5 trillion and a population of over 800 million, it is one of the most promising frontiers for digital investment.”
“At this forum, we are not just identifying investment-ready markets and emerging startup ecosystems,” he continued. “We are spotlighting scalable innovations in artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, cloud computing and other frontier technologies.”
He highlighted Pakistan’s commitment to building world-class digital infrastructure and invited global investors to benefit as well.
“Let me emphasize that Pakistan offers a compelling proposition to global investors,” he said. “With investor-friendly policies, regulatory reforms and a cost advantage of up to 70 percent compared to North America, Pakistan creates the ideal environment for sustainable and profitable growth.”
A day earlier, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif announced Pakistan had secured approximately $700 million in foreign investment commitments by hosting the forum, underscoring the country’s appeal as a digital investment destination.
Sharif also met DCO Secretary-General Deemah AlYahya earlier today and called the forum a “transformative moment” for the country’s digital economy.
“Pakistan’s most valuable asset is our young workforce,” he said. “Equipping them with digital skills and training is among our top priorities.”
The prime minister said the DFDI forum and its international participation reflected Pakistan’s potential to lead in the global digital economy.
He also met executives from major IT firms participating in the two-day forum, including Russoft, sAi Venture Capital, Mashreq Bank and Mindhyve.ai, who collectively pledged about $700 million in digital sector investment.
“Pakistan stands on the threshold of a transformative leap,” he told delegates, reaffirming his government’s support and commitment to building long-term, mutually beneficial partnerships.
Sharif said Pakistan’s goal was to become a regional hub for technology, finance and innovation, aligned with its ongoing fiscal reforms and digital infrastructure expansion.
Pakistan positions itself as ‘leading digital nation’ at inaugural online FDI forum
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Pakistan positions itself as ‘leading digital nation’ at inaugural online FDI forum
- Pakistan ranks among top 10 nations by online population, with 140 million Internet and 73 million smartphone users
- PM Sharif says Pakistan stands on brink of digital transformation, backed by investor confidence and young workforce
Pakistan partners with Swiss firm to provide free cancer treatment to patients
- In Pakistan, more than 185,000 new cancer cases and over 125,000 deaths are reported annually
- Under the agreement, Roche Pakistan will bear 70% cost of cancer medicines, government will pay 30%
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has partnered with a leading Swiss pharmaceutical firm, Roche, to provide costly cancer treatment to Pakistani patients free of cost, the country’s health minister said on Friday, as the two sides signed an agreement in this regard.
Cancer is an insidious disease, alarmingly shaping the global health crisis as it claims millions of lives each year. Responsible for one in six deaths worldwide, cancer cases are projected to reach 26 million annually by 2030, with developing countries shouldering 75% of this burden.
Over 70% of cancer deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), where survival rates hover at just 30%. The reasons are manifold, including inadequate access to early detection and treatment services, lack of awareness, and societal taboos, to name a few.
In Pakistan alone, more than 185,000 new cases and more than 125,000 deaths are reported annually. Breast cancer is the most common, accounting for 16.5% of cases, followed by lip and oral cavity cancers (8.6%) and lung cancer (5.1%), according to Aga Khan University Hospital (AKUH).
“Roche Pakistan has proposed to the government many years ago that the cure for this cancer is only with them... and they want to do a partnership with the Government of Pakistan. They want to give 70% of the price of the medicine,”
Health Minister Mustafa Kamal said, adding the government would bear the rest of the 30% cost of treatment.
“And whoever is given this medicine should be given it free of cost.”
Kamal shared that cancer treatment in Pakistan costs around Rs9.8 million ($34,588) in five years on an average.
“[Most] people don’t have this (amount). So, this was a very important project,” he said.
Citing a World Health Organization (WHO) report, the health minister said millions of Pakistanis, who were not born poor, had fallen below the poverty line after falling sick.
“Houses were sold, plots were sold, jewelry was sold, everything was sold and illness made them poor,” he said, praising Roche Pakistan for its support.
Speaking at the agreement-signing ceremony, Roche Pakistan Managing Director Hafsa Shamsie called it “just the first step.”
“We will enhance the number of patients, we will enhance the disease areas, and God willing, we will go into other parts of the patient journey, like awareness and diagnosis,” she said.
Pakistan last year vaccinated over 10 million adolescent girls against a virus that causes cervical cancer as part of a continuing national campaign that has overcome early setbacks fueled by skeptics online.
Cervical cancer is the third most common cancer among Pakistani women after breast and ovarian cancers. Globally, it is the fourth most common. Each year, between 18,000 and 20,000 women in Pakistan die of the disease, according to health authorities.
The girls targeted in the initial campaign were in Punjab and Sindh provinces and in Azad Kashmir. The country plans to expand the coverage to additional areas by 2027, hoping to eliminate cervical cancer as a public health problem by 2030. It became the 149th country to add the HPV vaccine to its immunization schedule.
