SBP in talks to introduce venture capitalist friendly regulations, says Aidrus  

• Tania Aidrus says that the government role in startup sector is to facilitate startups by introducing regulations and creating a safe environment for venture capitalist.

In order to boost up the startup culture in Pakistan, the country’s central bank is in talks with the Venture Capital Association of Pakistan (VCAP) to identify the changes needed in regulations to facilitate venture capitalists.

Informed former Google's executive and chief of Digital Pakistan Vision, Tania Aidrus, she says: “We cannot change regulations without understand the issues”.  While talking to media, Aidrus said that the government and the State Bank of Pakistan have a major role to counter this issue.

“People invest by watching others, if they trust someone and they are investing somewhere the people also start investing, this trend is all over the world and is in a very nascent stage in Pakistan,” said Aidrus. The techie was of the view that the positive developments in Pakistan startup scene would boost investor confidence.

Back in December, Prime Minister Imran Khan launched the “Digital Pakistan Vision", with former Google's executive Tania Aidrus at the helm of the initiative. The program focuses on access and connectivity, digital infrastructure, digital skills, innovation and entrepreneurship.

Aidrus said that the government role in this sector is to facilitate startups by introducing regulations and creating a safe environment for venture capitalist. “At present, the foreign investors say that they do not want to invest in Pakistan, and demand to incorporate the company abroad,” she said.

Earlier, a report published by McKinsey & Co's, Pakistan is one of the fastest-growing economies in Asia, with 720 startups established since 2010, some 67 percent of it are still running and 100 are successfully raising funding says McKinsey & Co's.