P@SHA PULSE Vol 4. Jan 2023 Edition
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Dear Members,
As we move ahead with 2023, we would like to appraise you on several initiatives taken up by CEC over the last few months.
▪ Building Secretariat Capacity: We have identified 4 main pillars of P@SHA and tried mapping them to 4 committees and further 4 departments within the secretariat. They include Government Relations, Branding and Global Outreach, Skills and Capacity building and Member Services.
▪ Active Recruitment by HR Committee: We are finding the best of the talent to be made part of the Secretariat team and leaders who can lead these pillars and departments while setting up processes and expanding the secretariat bandwidth to serve our members better. Interviews for various positions are in progress and we look forward to your support to identify better leaders for the said positions.
▪ P@SHA Governance Model: Governance committee is working actively to develop SOP’s and models to make P@SHA more transparent and enable better accountability within CEC and Secretariat team.
▪ Brand & Global Outreach: We have taken up several initiatives to start connecting our members to global opportunities, exposure and information. P@SHA Pulse is getting regular, and we are aiming to be more disciplined in form of our timeline to roll it out. P@SHA Connect is initiated to develop B2B events in different geographies. We are also enabling our members to participate in delegations and events in top exporting destinations that matter.
▪ Member Meetup: Member Services Committee has scheduled a series of P@SHA Meetups for the CXO’s to come together, meet, learn and share their experiences and laughter's. In short, bringing all of us together. Please keep an eye on the event happening in your city.
▪ Skills Development: Several initiatives under capacity building lead by the Skills Committee are in the execution and regular updates are shared with you via P@SHA Pulse.
▪ Government Relations: Our GRC team has been actively pursuing various challenges and problems of members with government departments and officials.
▪ P@SHA for the Entire IT Industry: There was a pressing need to bring the IT Industry together for IT & IT-enabled services as well as startups leveraging tech. We have updated our tagline, simplifying it to “Pakistan IT Industry Association” from “Pakistan Software House Association”. The former tagline was a great start. However, the IT Industry grew beyond Software Houses.
We need all your support in keeping the ball rolling. Looking forward to your continued input for making P@SHA better.
P@SHA CEC
By The Members, For The Members
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January 5-8, 2023
International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2023
CES is the most influential tech event in the world. It's an opportunity for some of the biggest tech brands to do business, meet new partners, and put their best innovation center-stage. In a first for P@SHA, we collaborated with the US Embassy to nominate a delegation of our members to attend the prestigious CES2023 held in Las Vegas between January 5-8.
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January 26, 2023
AGG CXO meetup Lahore
This time AGG Meetup was in Lahore. The aim of this meetup was to bring together industry leaders for an interactive discussion and share their experiences in the gaming ecosystem.
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January 25, 2023
Open Silicon Valley Conference
P@SHA invited members to a conference co-hosted by OPEN Silicon Valley and USAID on Accelerating Silicon Valley Investments in Pakistan.
The conference took place on January 25th, 2023, at Serena Hotel, Islamabad. It was an invite only event with free entry.
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January 27, 2023
OPEN Silicon Valley: Trusted Partner Network | Islamabad Meetup
P@SHA partnered with the OPEN Trusted Partner Network (OTPN), a new initiative from OPEN Silicon Valley to connect companies with shared values.
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January 5, 2023
Meeting with the Prime Minister
The Prime Minister hosted a meeting to address the challenges faced by the IT industry, and articulate Strategic Roadmap Economy-ICT Exports.
P@SHA made recommendations on ease of doing business—including ease of digital payments, reducing cost of doing business through effective tax regime, allowing export refinance scheme—skills development, MadeinPakistan (local product), STZ benefits, and Brand Pakistan.
The PM constituted a steering Committee - including P@SHA and top exporters, and Roadmap team - to facilitate the IT industry in a time-bound manner. The PM has also involved the following government departments: SAPM Youth Affairs, SAPM Government Effectiveness, SBP, FBR, Finance Ministry, Commerce Division, HEC, NAVTTC, M/o Federal Education, PSEB, and MOITT.
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Ongoing Discussions with State Bank of Pakistan
Multiple rounds of discussions led by the CEC and Policy Team are ongoing with the Governor SBP. One of the agenda items tasked to State Bank was to ensure strict implementation of the 35% FOREX exchange retention of the export proceeds and to allow hassle-free outward payments through the specialized dollar account.
To ensure the 35% forex retention is implemented smoothly, the SBP issued circular letters No. 02 and No. 03 of 2023 on January 13, 2023, regarding exports of software and information technology and the utilization of funds in exporters’ special foreign currency accounts.
However, due to misinterpretation of the circular, exporters have faced challenges in PKR conversion and retention. Following concerns raised by P@SHA regarding the mandatory retention of 35% of export proceeds by banks nationwide, the SBP has issued clarification to banks.
The SBP has authorized banks to credit up to 35% of the export proceeds at the discretion of exporters, and to help IT exporters open foreign currency accounts. In addition to utilization and retention of FOREX, SBP is helping build the digital ecosystem through additional payment categories for utilization and dollar denominated credit cards.
If companies are facing challenges around FOREX retention and utilization, write specific cases to facilitation: itexporters@sbp.org.pk / policy@pasha.org.pk for immediate resolution.
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Discussion Rounds with FBR
As part of the Prime Minister’s Strategic Roadmap Economy-ICT Exports the FBR is supporting P@SHA to allow ease of doing business and reduce cost of business for the IT industry.
Positive developments have been made in terms of policy concessions. Additionally, FBR has committed to address the operational challenges encountered by the IT companies.
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Meeting with Ministry of Finance
The second meeting of the Steering Committee, including P@SHA and top exporters, and Roadmap team, was convened by the Finance Minister.
P@SHA addressed the issue of misinterpretation of the State Bank circular by the Banks as well as the undue super-tax notices being received by IT companies Discussion was also done around funds re-appropriated for skills and STZ enablement.
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January 12, 2023
Input to FPCCI
FPCCI called on P@SHA to solicit input on the market access and concession list for the Pak-GCC Free Trade Agreement on Trade in Services. After taking input on goods for FTA, FPCCI research team moved towards the services domain.
P@SHA gave feedback on commitments given by the GCC countries for computer and related services. Additionally, recommendations were made on concessions made for tech companies. The meeting was attended by Vice Chairman Khurram Rahat, and Policy Lead Kashoon Leeza.
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January 18, 2023
Artificial Intelligence Summit (MoITT, STZA, NIC, AtomCamp)
P@SHA was invited to join the Artificial Intelligence Summit hosted by AtomCamp in partnership with the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication (MOITT), Special Technology Zones Authority (STZA) and National Incubation Center (NIC) Pakistan.
The summit was unique in bringing private as well as public stakeholders to the table to discuss AI policy, ecosystem, and skill development. It focused on building a mature ecosystem for the development of AI-centered private sector and even utilization in policymaking.
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January 19, 2023
Pak-Russia Business Forum with TDAP
TDAP invited P@SHA to the Pak-Russia Business Forum on the sidelines of the 8th session of Pak-Russian IGC on Trade, Economic, Scientific, and Technical Cooperation.
The Russian delegation led by the Energy Minister along with private sector representatives interacted with the key trade sectors in Islamabad. P@SHA explained the export potential of the IT sector of Pakistan with Russia.
Elaborating the key drivers of Pakistan’s potential, the export trajectory, composition of the IT sector and investment opportunities were discussed. The presentation was done by Vice-Chairman Khurram Rahat, and attended by Policy Lead Kashoon Leeza as we;; as P@SHA Member Salman Dar.
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AGG Committee Updates
Meeting with the US Consulate to Facilitate GDC Delegation
P@SHA AGG (Animation, Games & Graphics) sub-sector leaders met with US Consul representatives in Lahore to facilitate the GDC Delegation happening from 20th to 23rd March 2023 in USA.
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Skills Committee
Meetings with the PMO, NAVTTC and PSEB
P@SHA has been an active part of the program design discussions for the Prime Minister’s initiative for Training for Unemployed Youth of Pakistan Project. P@SHA L&D and Skills Committee attended a series of meetings on January 6, January 12, and 18 hosted by the Prime Minister’s office along with MoITT, NAVTTC and PSEB.
The program aims to train 35,000 unemployed youth all across Pakistan. P@SHA provided insights during the program design discussions and provided valuable input in recommending the demanded courses, design of training and duration of the program. In addition, the meetings at the PM office,
P@SHA had separate coordination meetings and brainstorming sessions with both PSEB and NAVTTC on the structure of this program on January 13 and 26. With the input provided, the program design is expected to be finalized by the PM office in February.
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Meeting of the Committee Constituted by MoFEPT on PM’s Instructions
On January 11, 2023, P@SHA participated in the first committee meeting involving MoFEPT, MoITT, and HEC to discuss the three major concerns: To update the curriculum as per the industry needs, Mainstreaming IT Associate Degree Program (ADP) of two years and to train the IT graduate to be integrated into the industry. P@SHA shared its insights on the three points.
As a follow-up to this discussion and after separate meetings with NCEAC, P@SHA provided inputs to the HEC on the course structure of the ADP program to best align with the industry needs.
P@SHA further shared its insights on the experience of training 4000 youth under the TechLift program and intended collaborations to meet the needs of the industry through various skilling initiatives.
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PEC's Industry-Academia Roundtable
The P@SHA L&D team participated in the PEC’s Industry Academia Roundtable on January 11, 2023. The focus of the roundtable was to align the industry and academia in creating employable engineers, to create better use of the engineers across the country by integrating them in the workforce and to improve the overall industry academia integration.
As an advocate of making engineers a part of IT training and internship opportunities, P@SHA may see a potential collaboration with PEC in the near future.
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Stakeholders Consultation Meeting on State of Engineering Education & Challenges for Engineers’ Employability
On January 26, 2023, P@SHA’s participated in the stakeholder’s meeting to provide insights and share the industry’s perspective with the ministry of planning, HEC, PSEB, PEC and other stakeholders to help improve the overall education and to allow engineers to become a part of the IT workforce. P@SHA shared some of the training initiatives for the capacity building of youth and with HEC for Associate Degree Programs that are being discussed to reduce the supply friction by allowing 2-year degree programs for IT and CS fields.
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Count of Bootcamps
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Bootcamps Completed
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Bootcamps
In Progress
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Planned
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Grand Total
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38
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36
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24
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98
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Count of Students By Track
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Main Track
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Active Students
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Graduated Students
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Total Students
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Cloud Solution Architecture
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335
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145
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480
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MEAN/MERN Stack
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537
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373
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910
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Mobile App Development
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149
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164
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313
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SQA (Selenium and Test Complete)
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136
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220
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356
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Web Engineering
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245
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282
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527
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Grand Total
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1402
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1184
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2586
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Count of Bootcamps By Status & City
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City
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Bootcamps Completed
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Bootcamps In Progress
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Planned
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Total
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Islamabad
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12
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18
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12
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42
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Karachi
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3
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7
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7
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17
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Lahore
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23
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11
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5
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39
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Grand Total
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38
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36
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24
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98
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Brand & Global Outreach Committee
Meeting with the Pakistan Embassy in KSA
P@SHA’s Brand & Global Outreach Chair Jamil Goheer met the Ambassador of Pakistan to Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, H.E. Ameer Khurram Rathore at the Pakistan Embassy, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Multiple initiatives were discussed to strengthen the positioning of Pakistan’s IT Industry in Saudi Market. The Embassy extended its full support and shared their initiatives around lobbying in the Saudi Market for Pakistan’s IT sector.
P@SHA and the Embassy agreed to collaborate to plan and lobby around key technology events in 2023, including LEAP 2023 & 2024. Additionally, the Embassy of Pakistan offered to connect Pakistani startups to incubators, accelerators and funds in Saudi Arabia.
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P@SHA’s Diversity & Inclusion: IT & ITeS Landscape 2022
On January 11, 2023, P@SHA participated in the first committee meeting involving MoFEPT, MoITT, and HEC to According to the Global Gender Gap Report 2021, Pakistan ranks 153 out of 156 countries. Women make up 49.2% of Pakistan’s population but only 22.2% of this is part of the labor force.
According to P@SHA Salary Survey 2021, the gender diversity ratio of the IT Industry in Pakistan is 17.08%. P@SHA is committed towards improving diversity and inclusivity at the workplace.
This report aimed to answer important questions regarding current diversity practices as well as identify the gaps in the overall hiring, retention, and advancement of the diverse workforce.
Please click here, to read the full report.
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January 1st, 2023 |
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Stewart Pakistan Opens Stewart IT Tower |
While Stewart Pakistan turned 10 as a Stewart, Stewart Pakistan inaugurated its second office in Lahore. Its Stewart IT Tower, based on 6 stories independent beautiful building designed on state of art infrastructure and ambiance. Stewart Lahore is an important partner as the team makes Stewart a Premier Title Services Company.
View Video
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January 11th, 2023 |
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Astera Data Stack Triumphs at 2023 Big Innovation Awards |
Astera’s enterprise-grade data management platform, Astera Data Stack, won the 2023 BIG Innovation Award. Presented by the Business Intelligence Group, these awards recognize products that consistently deliver innovative solutions for their community and customers.
Astera Data Stack is a code-free platform that simplifies data management by eliminating the need for developers to write complex SQL scripts. Its automation features minimize human intervention, saving time and resources. The platform offers a range of capabilities, including data extraction, integration, warehousing, and API management, all in one unified solution.
Visit Website
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January 15th, 2023 |
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Folio3 Career Reboot Program for Women |
Folio3 launched its Career Reboot Program to help women who took a break and were willing to restart their career again. The goal of this program is to enable & train the participants for future opportunities at Folio3 and other organizations.
Visit Website
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Januray 16th, 2023 |
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Inspire & Be-inspired, Algo’s yearly get-together |
Algo gathered to celebrate its journey from a family of 30 to 200+. The team celebrated successes over the last 12 months and its resilience to overcome all challenges.
Themed "Inspire 2023" to calibrate for challenges ahead, it aimed to engage in more intra-teams collaborations, inspire others, empower women, and work as #onealgo.
Visit Website
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January 17th, 2023 |
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MRS Technologies illuminates Light Middle East 2023 with MTronic |
Light Middle East (LME) kicked off on January 17 in Dubai to exhibit three days of excitement, innovation, and revolution in the fields of lighting and the building services industry.
MRS Technologies showcased MTronic, their cutting-edge smart home solution, to an overwhelming response. This event came just before MTronic’s official Pakistan launch, set in February 2023.
Visit Website
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P@SHA Membership Renewal 2023
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P@SHA Membership Renewal 2023 is LIVE Now!
Please fill the form at https://bit.ly/RenewPASHA to request renewal of your P@SHA membership for the tenure of April 2023 – March 2024.
The deadline for P@SHA Membership Renewal is March 31st, 2023.
Only members that renew their membership before the deadline will be allowed to cast a vote in the P@SHA Annual Elections 2023.
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P@SHA scheduled a delegation to LEAP 2023 happening from 6th - 9th Feb in Riyadh, KSA. Being a premier IT event at scale in Saudi Arabia, it is critically important that Pakistan's IT sector builds a strong presence in the event to continue its legacy from last year.
In collaboration with the Embassy of Pakistan in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, P@SHA planned a B2B Tech Connect around LEAP in the evening of 7th Feb 2023 from 6:30 PM to 9:30 PM. The event aimed to serve as an opportunity to connect, learn and network with companies in Saudi Arabia.
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February 8, 2023
4th Digital Banking & Payments Summit DigiBAP2023
4th Digital Banking & Payments Summit DigiBAP2023 was scheduled for February 8, 2023, in Karachi. Organized by TerraBiz, it brought together hundreds of restless minds united by their passion for digital banking & fintech. It focused on the issues most relevant to today’s banking, stimulating new thinking and inspiring action.
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February 16, 2023
Can IT Services Companies Exit? (Workshop in March)
Current or aspiring IT Services founders learned about the path to building equity value in services businesses and exiting them for life-changing financial outcomes.
This panel consisted of experts from the USA that have built and successfully sold services businesses.
This panel will be followed by a workshop in March to educate selected services founders on how to develop a Unique Value Proposition and followed by a sales pitch competition where services founders will present their pitches and the best pitch will win PKR 250,000.
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February 22-23, 2023
22nd ITCN Asia
22nd ITCN Asia is Pakistan's largest annual technology event! The event provides a 360° international platform for showcasing cutting-edge tech to decision makers from several industries like Banking & Finance, Telecommunication, Health & Pharma.
The three day event is scheduled from February 23rd to 25th, 2023 in Islamabad at the Pak-China Friendship Center.
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