By Hina Haroon
“Great opportunities await Pakistan in the United Arab Emirate (UAE) in the fields of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Information Technology because UAE is transforming into an AI and IT-based country and is probably the first country to appoint a full-fledged minister for Artificial Intelligence”.
This was said by the Ambassador of Pakistan to UAE, Faisal Niaz Tirmizi while giving an interview with PTV World where he was expressing his views over events such as AI Everything Global 2025 that are taking place regularly in UAE. Important Q&A of the interview are hereunder:
Question: Please elaborate us what sort of conversations are being held at a very important event of the AI Everything Global 2025.
Answer: Well, that’s what they say, AI is everything now. This is a transformational movement that the world witnessed with the creation of steam engines, electricity, telecommunication, and computers and now this is the new frontier. The United Arab Emirates was and is probably the first country to appoint a full-fledged minister for artificial intelligence and they are focused on this thing. They plan to add around 100 billion dollars to the UAE economy in the next five, to six years through artificial intelligence because this is the new way to artificially use all the information that we are gathering through IT technology to make better decisions for governance, to make a better decision for health issues, a better decision for tourism, a better decision for banking and different fields.
Q: Your Excellency, which is why you know because we’re short on time today you know so we would certainly want to ask you because you represent Pakistan over there, the UAE as well, so imagine how do you think that Pakistan’s National AI Policy 2023 is going to set the framework for Pakistanis as well? There have been so many industrial revolutions that we have not been a part of, unfortunately. How do you see how important it is for Pakistan to jump onto this bandwagon?
A: This is our opportunity because we have the 60% youth bulge which not many countries have and frankly this is our opportunity. Our total exports at present are only 3.5 billion dollars. Our potential is much more. You know after the US and the UK, UAE is the third biggest export destination in terms of IT Pakistan. So we joined it because there was a big exhibition in Dubai a couple of months ago, JITEX, where Pakistan was declared the tech destination and we had a big presence. So this time we have over 11 companies here specifically dealing with AI and now they have signed deals with their counterparts from all across the world to showcase Pakistan that we have the potential to improve, to contribute to the global economy.
Q: Mr. Ambassador, artificial intelligence is also called the multi-agent ecosystem because it is collaborating with so many diverse sectors like healthcare, finance, education, energy, you name it, any sector. So what sort of conversations are happening at this event when we talk about regulating artificial intelligence and secondly Pakistan which is a breeding ground for this digital ecosystem? How can we make sure that we galvanize this momentum and positively exploit it in our favor?
A: Well that’s what the whole theme of this conference was to make the connections between the Pakistani companies and their counterparts not only in the Gulf but globally because all major IT companies were represented in this global AI exhibition and that’s what we are trying to do that we have the expertise and we can contribute because the world will be transformed. If you want to see the effect of artificial intelligence you have to come to this country where everything is being driven through a click of a button through your smartphone and that’s why we said that we have the potential to make the connections between people who are working on artificial intelligence in Pakistan with their counterparts all across the world and of course the Chairman of Pakistan’s Software Export board was also here. He had several meetings, and he also spoke on many forums showcasing Pakistan as a major destination where a lot of investment can be made to make the connections of the skilled workers in Pakistan with the global giants who are working in this field.
Q: Your excellency in addition to this where you actually have pointed out that you know our IT exports last year were at 3.5 billion dollars and certainly, we can serve the purpose of be a breeding ground. How do you think that global collaborations with Pakistan and UAE can actually help us within AI partnerships and how do you think that we can reach out better in bigger goals?
A: As I said we have already declared the next destination for the last JITEX and of course, the minister of IT is also coming here for the world government summit where she will be meeting her counterpart from the UAE where the prime minister is also coming here for the world government summit in Dubai. So Pakistan would also be showcasing will be caring about the momentum that it started from JITEX to global AI to the world government summit to offer Pakistan as a major destination for investments because that’s what we have. We have the youth bulge, we have the universities that are producing, some of the universities are really producing world-class people who are working in artificial intelligence like NUST, LUMS, and a few institutes like FAST. So we have to make those connections and this is the opportunity for the minister of IT, for the prime minister to carry forward this discussion which had started six months ago in Dubai to the next level at the world government summit on the 11th and 12th of this month.
Q: I mean what sort of conversations are you hoping that this conference will bring and what sort of collaboration do you think will foster a new open era there is also a digital nation Pakistan which is initiated by this government to foster a digital transformation. So how do you think we can bridge a divide you know a digital divide through initiating such sort of conversations back to the arena of artificial intelligence?
A: Well as you are aware Pakistani companies are already giving a lot of back-office support to several organizations like ITTISALAT, Rasul Khaymar Bank, DIAB, and Dubai Islamic Bank in Pakistan. So that was the first step but now we are saying that we have the expertise that we can take those collaborations to the AI level and increase the turnover of businesses many folds. So at present our AI, our IT exports to the UAE are around 300 million dollars. We are hoping to cross the magical figure of a billion dollars within this year and frankly, once that happens with all businesses once it takes momentum, knowledge is coming you make it the progress is exponential and that is what we are offering Pakistan right now through this our participation in these conferences at the technical level as well as at the political level.
Q: Exactly and your excellency in addition to this I would want to speak about two major issues and number one obviously how do you think that we’re going to invest we are going to get more investors from foreign to kind of invest in our AI companies as well because we have 500 AI startups over here in the country number one. Number two we have seen that any AI startup which was fruitful eventually has moved to Silicon Valley or other parts of the world where they would want an exit strategy for themselves. We have seen Rehan Jalil you know who had a company with the name of Ycora sold it for 150 million dollars then moved on to sell another company for 300 million dollars now the AI cloud computing solution which his company is providing is worth 2 billion dollars. How can we protect these startups from being within the country so that it adds up to our economy?
A: Well that’s a challenge but you know that’s the nature of the beast the global economy for instance you know the biggest IT investment in UAE has been by a Pakistani with Kareem which was sold for 3.2 billion dollars but that has created a lot of opportunities for the Pakistanis not only within the GCC but also on the Silicon Valley so we have to create an environment within Pakistan that those companies could stay here but we cannot cater only in this global world to a domestic market we have to open up for the global market and Pakistan should be ready to embrace that because if you have an opening in the global market a number the numbers of Pakistanis working in that sector exponentially and that’s what we have witnessed especially in China and even in other countries that a lot of their experts in IT sector or in business sectors who had moved out of the countries have started to come back and started investing within their homelands and that is exactly what I hope that at certain stage we would encourage all these investors who have made big not only in the GCC but also on the Silicon Valley to come back to Pakistan and invest in that country because it’s a natural connector between Central Asia, South Asia and Middle East so we have the opportunities, we have the youth bulge, we have the technical expertise, we have to create the right business eco-centre to attract those investors and we are working in that direction.
Watch the complete interview hereunder:
