A Google delegation headed by Mr. Tim Paolini, the Google APAC lead for Cloud, recently visited the office of the Special Technology Zones Authority (STZA) in Islamabad along with leaders of Tech Valley Pakistan.
The group held a working meeting with STZA Chairman, Mr. Amer Hashmi and Chief Customer Officer Mr Javaid Iqbal, on matters of mutual interest between Google and STZA, said a press release issued here.
Besides, visiting delegates were briefed about Special Technology Zones being developed by STZA across Pakistan and the special fiscal and monetary incentives, including but not limited to 10-year tax and duty holiday, and support being offered to domestic and foreign tech companies in the Special Tech Zones, according to the press release.
The press release further mentions that Chairman STZA expressed his desire to work closely with Google to enable Pakistani startups, tech SMEs as well as large scale tech enterprises, looking to operate inside the STZs as Zone Enterprises.
STZA expressed interest in helping Google expand its existing footprint in Pakistan by jointly working on strategic technology interventions for tech zones.
Moreover, some of the suggested interventions include the establishment of a state of the art data centres across Pakistan, enhanced global cloud services to harness the local demand and boost the economic value of various industrial sectors, adding more fintech power to the financial ecosystem by introducing Google Pay and other advanced cashless payment systems for the enablement and growth of e-commerce activity, supporting Pakistan’s burgeoning freelancer market and bringing Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM’s) to Pakistan to begin manufacturing Google chrome books and other products in the Special Tech Zones.—APP
