Pakistan shines as Tech Destination of the Year
By: Syeda Shehrbano Kazim
The world’s largest and most dominant technology event set new benchmarks for innovation and global collaboration as 6,500 exhibitors, 1,800 startups, and 1,200 investors, alongside governments from more than 180 countries shared the space with 200,000 visitors.
The 44th edition of GITEX GLOBAL, held under the theme of ‘Global Collaboration to Forge a Future AI Economy’, not only set new benchmarks for innovation and business opportunities but also reinforced the event’s critical role in shaping a technology landscape increasingly defined by AI adoption.
Cybersecurity emerged as a key topic, emphasising the need to secure digital infrastructure amid evolving cyber threats. Future mobility took centre stage, showcasing next-generation innovations like autonomous vehicles, electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, and AI advancements in the auto-tech industry. Eng. Zabri Adil, representing the Permanent Secretariat of the OIC-CERT, the Computer Emergency Response Teams under the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), presented the overall perspective of how Islamic countries globally can unite together to build norms to address future cybersecurity threats in the face of de-globalization today.
AI’s role in the development of hyperscale, modular, and edge data centers was a significant focus, reflecting the burgeoning demand for scalable solutions and the region’s rise as a hub for AI-powered data infrastructure. At GITEX Global, Huawei hosted the Industrial Digital and Intelligent Transformation Summit and launched joint solutions with partners for ten industries like public utilities, transportation, finance, electric power, oil & gas, mining, retail, education, and healthcare, and a series of new flagship products. Solutions and products that are designed to support customers in enhancing their digital and intelligent transformation.
While AI is transforming business strategies, revolutionising industries, and creating new growth opportunities across the globe, it is already impacting everyday lives whether it is transportation or ordering food but to propel growth even further across different sectors, people and companies need to learn how to enable AI effectively.
Government entities, digital agencies, and startups & enterprises finalised even more forward-facing partnerships, the world’s foremost experts come together to discuss challenges and opportunities surrounding the energy transition, boosting energy efficiency, and deploying climate tech.
Pakistan was the proud Tech Destination of the Year, and 26 companies under the country’s Ministry of Information Technology & Telecommunications showcased their services and solutions throughout the week. With IT/ITeS companies exporting to 170 countries, Pakistan offers an exceptional value proposition, delivering services at up to 70% lower operational costs compared to North America. The Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication (MoITT), Pakistan Software Export Board (PSEB), Pakistan Software Houses Association (PASHA), and the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC) collaborated to position Pakistan at the forefront of the global IT landscape, using GITEX Global’s immense power as a connector for the global technology ecosystem to showcase Pakistan’s brilliant tech talent and tremendous potential
The ‘Intelligent Connectivity’ event saw a combination of thought-provoking conversations and exhibitors displaying their powerful products and services that will revolutionise the world in the coming years. The conferences showcased critical dialogues shaping the future of digital transformation on a global scale, featuring insights from industry visionaries – such as Jong-Soo Choi, CTO of Samsung Medical Centre in South Korea, Stéphane Ouaki Head of Department at the European Innovation Council (EIC), Dr. Mark Sagar, Co-Founder of Soul Machines from New Zealand, Heman Bekele, TIME’s 2024 Kid of the Year, Valentyn S. Volkov, PhD, co-founder of XPANCEO, and renowned cybersecurity figure, Dr. Diane Janosek, who served legal, policy & executive roles at the National Security Agency, White House & the Pentagon.
Leo Chen, Corporate Senior Vice President, President of Enterprise Sales, Huawei, shared the essential components for shaping and fully leveraging the potential of the digital transformation. From building AI-ready infrastructure that allows data to be effectively collected, transmitted, processed, and computed in real time and be transformed into productivity, laying the foundation for digital and intelligent transformation to promoting AI enablement through AI capability frameworks and tools that accelerate application in real-world scenarios.
