Karachi: Hundreds of budding tech industry entrepreneurs and young IT professionals have made a formal pledge to ensure that their earnings in the overseas markets will be brought to Pakistan in the form of remittances to support the Pakistani economy and help the country retire its massive debts.
The solemn commitment to this effect was given at the first-ever reunion of the graduates of the mass Information Technology training programme of the non-profit Saylani Welfare International Trust (SWIT) held at Clifton’s Mohatta Palace. The event was formally inaugurated by the Turkish Consul General, Cemal Sangu.
A large number of the graduates of the IT training programme continuing for the past 10 years attended the event physically while many fellow alumni members from other cities and outside Pakistan attended the event virtually via video-link.
State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Deputy Governor, Saleemullah, said the Pakistan’s Central Bank had always supported the Pakistani IT industry to increase the export of software and high-tech services from the country.
He told the audience that the SBP had eased the procedure of opening bank accounts by freelancers with minimal documentation to help them receive remittances from the local and foreign IT industries.
He said the freelancers and IT professionals had also been allowed by the SBP to keep a percentage of their remittances in foreign exchange with no restriction on usage of these funds. He said the SBP had allowed the banks to issue debt cards against these foreign currency accounts.
He said the SBP would fully support the campaign to increase Pakistan’s software exports from the current annual net worth of US $ 3.2 billion to make it the top foreign exchange earning sector for the country in the next five years.
Consul General Türkiye Cemal Sangu emphasized the deep friendship between Pakistan and Turkey, stating that Turkey’s doors are open for Pakistani youth. Whether for higher education, employment, or business, Pakistanis are provided with all necessary facilities in Turkey. He encouraged the youth to benefit from Saylani’s IT program and enhance their knowledge and skills, expressing his strong emotional connection with Pakistan. He highlighted the many shared values between both countries and said that the future of Pakistan’s youth is bright. He linked Pakistan’s progress to the advancement of the IT sector.
Renowned industrialist, Muhammad Ali Tabba, said that producing IT industry professionals at a mass scale was the step in the right direction to enlist the services of Pakistani youth to end the prevailing economic crisis in the country.
He urged the government to fully support the bona fide mass education drives by the private sector and non-profits to produce properly trained human resources for Pakistani and foreign IT industries.
He urged the brilliant alumni of the mass IT training programme to collaborate with each other to set up a large IT company to produce software and high-tech services for the international market.
He advised the graduates of the IT learning initiative to work with the fullest dedication and commitment in practical life to ensure the progress and development of Pakistan.
Faysal Bank CEO and President, Yousuf Husain, said Pakistani banks always require the services of IT professionals to provide the latest digital banking and financial services with hi-tech security cover to their clients.
SWIT Founder and Chairman, Maulana Bashir Farooq Qadri, in his speech at the event, urged the graduates of the IT learning programme in attendance to rise from their seats and make a solemn promise to bring to Pakistan their earnings in the international tech industry through their freelancing work and jobs secured in other
countries. “This is the least these graduates of our mass training initiative should do for the economy of our motherland after securing the latest IT training completely free of charge over the past 10 years,” said the SWIT Chairman.
He expressed his sincerest gratitude to top representatives of Pakistani industry, the IT sector, and the financial market for attending the event in large numbers to support Saylani’s training programme aimed at massively boosting Pakistani tech exports.
He said the Saylani Trust would continue with its IT training enabling the freelancers and tech industry professionals to earn US $ 100 billion annual foreign exchange for Pakistan to help it retire its foreign debts.
He thanked the concerned donors and philanthropists for massively supporting the IT education programme of his non-profit aimed at brightening the future of students from low and middle-income families.
He told the audience that the Saylani Trust would build more training facilities and IT parks in Karachi and other cities to produce a qualified workforce for the Pakistani tech market.
Renowned businessman, Arif Habib, reiterated the fullest support of the Pakistani corporate sector to produce a trained IT industry workforce of thousands every year for tech companies in Pakistan and outside the world.
He urged female students from middle-income families to attend IT training programmes to become freelancers to earn precious foreign exchange for the country without leaving their homes. He told the audience that the Naya Nazimabad housing project had been partnering with the Saylani Trust to build a school of emerging sciences and skills education to provide education in new technological fields to deserving students from districts West and Central of Karachi.
Renowned IT trainer, Zia Khan, told the audience about Saylani Trust’s drive to upgrade its IT training course to cover all the latest aspects of Artificial Intelligence being taught to students in the computer science fields in developed countries.
Head of Saylani Trust’s Education Board, Afzal Chamdia, and Abu Afzal told the audience that so far 400,000 candidates had appeared in the mass testing service conducted by the non-profit in major cities every year to select students for its IT programme. He said that over 90,000 students had so far successfully passed out from Saylani’s IT education programme.
He said that 16,000 students had been enrolled on the IT training courses conducted by SWIT. He said the top tech companies in the famous Silicon Valley of the US, in their recent interactions with the senior management of the Saylani Trust, had shown their willingness to hire graduates of its IT training programme remotely.
He informed the audience that the alumni of the Saylani Trust’s training programme by launching tech startups, freelancing work and securing jobs in the Pakistani and foreign IT industry had been earning up to US $ 25 million annually.
SWIT Chief Operating Officer Muhammad Ghazzal said the Saylani Trust was fully committed to transforming the lives of youth from deprived families in Pakistan by imparting them education in the latest technological fields.
Noted industrialist, Zaki Bashir, tech industry leader Asif Peer, Chairman of Pakistan Software Houses Association Muhammad Zohaib Khan, Tufail Ahmed Khan and Fahad Sheikh of Pakistan Freelancers’ Association, and other tech industry representatives also spoke and announced their fullest support for the graduates of the Saylani’s IT training programme.
