Pakistan's IT minister to visit Saudi Arabia to engage tech investors

ISLAMABAD - Umar Saif, the interim minister of information technology, will travel to Saudi Arabia on an official visit on Saturday to learn more about opportunities for skilled Pakistanis in the country's booming IT industry and to get an update on the $100 million Saudi-Pakistan Tech House project that was first announced earlier this year.

The project intends to promote a strategic alliance between businesses and IT companies operating in the two nations. Prince Fahad bin Mansour brought it up for the first time during the January Future Fest 2023 event in Pakistan.

This cooperative technology project is completely in line with Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030, which aims to diversify the country's economy by lowering reliance on oil and developing it into a magnet for international investments.

The minister said in an interview with international media outlet 'Arab News' on Wednesday, "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."

''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,'' he added.