News Desk
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s largest tech conference and expo, Future Fest, begins in Lahore on Friday, with a range of Saudi startups present at the event to explore opportunities for collaboration and expansion.
With the theme #SaveTheFuture, Future Fest 2023 is a three-day expo bringing together about 50,000 participants, representatives of 500 startups, and 200 exhibitors from over 30 countries.
After having a successful premiere in Islamabad last year, the expo’s second edition was held in Lahore in partnership with the administration of Punjab province and the Punjab Information Technology Board.
Saudi Investors in Expo
The delegation from Saudi Arabia taking part in the event comprised senior representatives from the Riyadh-based Digital Cooperation Organization (DCO) and Invest Saudi, the investment attraction and promotion brand under the Kingdom’s Ministry of Investment.
DCO director Abdul Karim Samakie told the audience amid Friday’s panel session titled “Saudi ecosystem and expansion opportunities” that he hopes to have some MoUs and deals at the end along with some new hirings from Pakistan.
One of the panelists and Pakistan’s additional foreign secretary for the Middle East, Rizwan Saeed Sheikh said that there were a lot of opportunities for collaboration, as Pakistan had great human capital and a vast network of IT professionals who could join the Kingdom’s digital job market and ecosystem.
Besides education and learning platforms including AlGooru, Classera also have their representations. Other included financial and insurance services Hala, Derayah Financial, Moyasar, and Takadao, transport monitoring service Tracking, e-commerce companies Salla, Diggipacks, Salasa, and Nana, software developers Squadio, Qoyod, digital solutions firm Elm and AI technology developer Mozn.
