PITB Roundtable 2017: Pakistan’s first ever-nationwide IT Census, launch of National Entrepreneur’s Network, announcements on IT advisory committees, PITB initiatives and more!
Punjab IT Board took it upon themselves to host the IT industry roundtable, which has now turned into a bi-annual (twice in a year) event. The event concluded here at Arfa Software Technology Park, Lahore where stakeholders from the ICT industry were invited to participate from all across the country.
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The event was attended by industry veterans, stakeholders, and tech leaders including Salim Ghauri (NetSol), Ghazanfar Ali and Nadeem A. Malik (IBM), Junaid Iqbal (Careem), Nighat Dad (DRF), Saad Hamid, Talaal Burney, Faizan Aslam, Imran Moinuddin (DotZero/NexDegree), Abdul Rehman Talat (Orient), Fahad Rao (ClubInternet), Saad Fazil (Venture Dive), Zafar Khan (Sofizar), Yasser Bashir (Arbisoft), Adeel Hashmi (TPL Maps), Maryam Mohiyuddin (SIL) among others.
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Senior representatives from organizations like Pakistan Stock Exchange, SMEDA and academic institutions also sent in their representation, with the like of VU, UMT, BNU, ITU and others in participation.
In his address the Advisor to CM Punjab and Chairman PITB Dr. Umar Saif announced the establishment of IT advisory committees to provide a formal role to the industry, academia and other stakeholders in policy making. Under the umbrella of IT Advisory Committee five different committees are being set up with different agendas including IT Census Committee, Industry – Government Liaison Committee, Academia – Government Liaison Committee, Digital Advocacy Taskforce and Human Resource and Capacity Building committee.
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Two highlights from the 4th edition of the PITB Roundtable, include the launch of the National Entrepreneurs Network, and the first ever country wide IT census to be initiated by Punjab IT Board.
National Entrepreneurs Network (NEN)
NEN is to provide a forum for all leading incubators, accelerators and VC firms to join hands to further promote this fast evolving sector and provide a collective voice to national entrepreneurial ecosystem. Under the NEN, PITB partnered with Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) to introduce small cap IPO regime for startups to raise investment from the market.
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Nationwide IT Census
The IT Census Committee comprises of President P@SHA – Jehan Ara, Yusuf Hussain – CEO ICT R&D Fund, Faisal Shuja Khan, CEO Ovex Tech Pakistan, Ather Imran – CEO Sybrid & President OPEN Islamabad Chapter, Syed Ahmad – CEO DPLit, Umar Farooq – Founder TechValley Abbottabad, and Nabeel A. Qadeer, Director Enterprise Development & Entrepreneurship at Punjab IT Board.
Speaking at the event, Faisal Khan, CEO Ovex Tech Pakistan, briefed the attendees on the importance of an IT census and outlined the methodology to carry this out.
In the first phase, data from more than 3000 IT companies, 2500 partnerships and sole proprietorships, 750 startups and more than 5000 freelancers shall be documented.
