Pakistani startups becoming a centre of investment attraction

  • Date: 19-Jun-2021
  • Source: Zawya
  • Sector:Technology
  • Country:Kuwait
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Pakistani startups becoming a centre of investment attraction

Industry experts say Pakistan's increasing mobile phone penetration and growing young population are among the major factors for foreign funding in startups. With a population base of 220 million, the country has 85 per cent teledensity representing 183 million cellular, 98 million 3G/4G and 101 million broadband subscribers, according to latest data. Realising startups' potential, Pakistan's government has now initiated reforms to set up the startup ecosystem, promote the ease of doing business, innovation and enterpreneurship in the country. In a latest move, the National Assembly this week passed the Companies (Amendments) Bill 2021 proposed by the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan to improve the overall business climate. The bill will now be tabled in the upper house of the parliament the Senate of Pakistan. Pakistan's economy, in general, and the IT sector in particular, are major beneficiaries of startup fundraising in the past 18 months. The economy staged a turnaround from 0.4 per cent contraction in 2019-20 to 3.94 per cent growth in 2020-21, with IT exports surging 46 per cent during the first 10 months of the current financial year. Experts say Pakistan is a highly-under-tapped market as banking facilities are being utilused by only 25 per