ISLAMABAD: The collaboration between the government and the private sector can unlock new opportunities, attract investments, and address key challenges facing the country’s economy.
This was the gist of two days, “Leaders in Islamabad Business Summit 2024 collaborating for growth” that concluded on Wednesday with the note that private businesses and entrepreneurs can play a role in driving economic growth, job creation, and innovation.
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Interactive Group of Companies Shahid Mahmud moderated the first session. He said that adapting to the needs, value and technological fluency of the demographic shift will be crucial for Pakistan’s continued progress and relevance on the global stage. He added that over the next 76 years, Pakistan will face the challenge of engaging with an entirely new generation known as the Alpha generation.
This demographic shift presents a unique set of circumstances, requiring innovative approaches to education, governance, and societal engagement, said Mahmud. He added that adapting to the needs, values, and technological fluency of this emerging generation will be crucial for Pakistan’s continued progress and relevance on the global stage.
Senior Executive Officer of StarLink Konstantin Makarov said that there are 5 key trends in the emerging markets: digital transformation, urbanization and infrastructure development, transportation solutions, demographic shifts and a shift in global supply chains.
Arshad Saeed Husain managing director Oxford University Press said that Pakistan needs to revamp its education system on a fast-track basis and needed to embrace global best practices. We need to move away from the archaic rote system, said Husain, adding that out of the 55 million children in school, we need to understand what are they learning and how they can become an asset to Pakistan.
He further stated that moving forward, the education system across the world has transformed. Now people talk about artificial intelligence. We need to be ready to adopt Artificial Intelligence (AI) for which there is a need to quickly revamp the way of teaching.
Zarrar Hasham Khan, Group Chief Business Solutions Officer, speaking on the telecom industry and connectivity needs for developing economies, stated that traditional structures in industrialized countries are collapsing, with AI revolutionizing software development. And successful societies are those where means of communication are readily available, whereas, the emergence of cloud services and AI is encouraging, Pakistan will need significant changes in the development and delivery of efficient systems, he added.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024