Last month, Pakistani President Arif Alvi spoke at a ceremony in the city of Karachi to mark the launch of the Presidential Initiative for Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Computing. He stated that the current government is providing all possible support to the country’s IT industry, adding that various laws have been enacted to expedite the sector’s growth and foster scientific and economic development. 

Given the rapid development of countries that focus heavily on AI and computing technologies, President Arif Alvi advised the Pakistani youth to pursue IT education in order to take advantage of the numerous opportunities available in the field globally. He said that the Pakistani government has implemented various initiatives aimed at supporting the country’s youth, including the free Digital Skill Program, which provides IT training via online classes.

It can be noted that in 2020, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan has made an invitation to German tech giant SAP to establish software development laboratories in the country. Khan mentioned that Pakistan has been leveraging digital solutions, notably in the areas of responding to citizen concerns, enhancing business processes, and improving operational efficiencies. Meanwhile, the efforts of the Pakistani government in focusing more on digital transformation were recognised by SAP CEO Christian Klein. Expressing appreciation for these endeavours, Klein emphasised the company’s commitment to shaping young software engineers through training and education. In an earlier statement, he hoped that this new generation of engineers will be advantageous to several IT development projects in the country.

The Contribution of SAP in IT Sector Development

Meanwhile, SAP Pakistan MD Saquib Ahmad believes the country’s IT sector should have a five-year relief package. Calling for a simplification of the tax regime for the industry, Ahmad added that the government’s special tax relief program was “an encouraging decision” that would aid in increasing the country’s export revenue. Despite this, he stated that because of inconsistencies in tax regulations, IT investors and specialists expressed confusion and are now looking for uniformity in the system.

Sharing more about the role of SAP in the IT industry, he explained that the private sector in Pakistan — including textile, food, agriculture, telecommunications, healthcare, and fashion sectors — is progressively embracing digital transformation to meet the needs of organisations in an ever-changing business environment today. According to the SAP Head, a cloud-first approach, which involves the usage of a cloud product rather than developing a non-cloud-based solution, supports enterprises in saving costs and improving scalability, while also minimising errors and allowing for more standardisation and collaboration.

“The next era of computing will be defined by intelligent enterprises. Organisations need to cut through the hype and be more useful and efficient to be an intelligent enterprise to make the world run better using emerging technologies,” he highlighted.

Additionally, Ahmad indicated that SAP was already experiencing significant success in its close cooperation with Pakistan’s digital leaders and that the company was actively working to eventually realise the “Digital Pakistan” goals. This is done by continuing to promote youth skills development and training in partnership with several major universities, he added.

“Going forward, SAP’s plan for 2022 is to tap on other industries to help them optimise costs, efficiency, and customer experiences,” the SAP Pakistan MD concluded.

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According to SAP Pakistan’s Country Managing Director Saquib Ahmad, the company is teaming up with the Pakistani government to support the “Digital Pakistan” vision. The creation of a digital ecosystem, including infrastructure and institutional frameworks, is a key goal of the Digital Pakistan Policy. It aims to enable the provision of cutting-edge digital services, as well as innovative applications and content. Additionally, the policy adopts a comprehensive strategy that is primarily focused on information and communications technology (ICT) as the main driver of every industry towards socio-economic growth.

Detailing more about the partnership with the government, SAP MD Saquib Ahmad shared:

“…co-innovating with the digital leaders to drive large-scale digitalisation across the country while also imparting digital literacy and training to ensure a holistic growth.”

In a recent press event in Karachi, Ahmad stated that digital innovation relies heavily on the use of the cloud and that many companies around the world are exploring a cloud-first approach for their IT operations. He added that instead of developing non-cloud-based technologies, adopting cloud services gives organisations the needed support for decreasing complexity, minimising costs, enabling real-time decision-making, and facilitating new avenues for digital business innovation.

Noting that cybersecurity continues to be one of the most challenging concerns that businesses encounter in today’s digital world, Ahmad went on to emphasise the company’s plans to step up its efforts to deliver greater online security for its customers.

Accelerating Digital Transformation with SAP Cloud Computing Technologies

Aside from helping small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the country, the SAP MD also revealed that over 90{aa282f308afcc222aaa21b0478c79e01a8fedd01972e2180867097bd93930f22} of Pakistan’s public and private sectors — including organisations in the fields of utilities, banking and finance, telecommunications, automotive, and the military — are utilising SAP solutions to optimise their mission-critical processes. He further highlighted how the tech giant’s cloud offerings enable enterprises in improving their end-to-end operations and innovating with new services in the cloud while at the same time, lowering costs and discovering opportunities for the development of the public and private industries.

Moreover, this month also witnessed SAP Pakistan’s partnership with NorthBay Solutions, an enterprise software outsourcing services provider with Amazon Web Services (AWS) Premier Partner status. As a cloud consulting and migration services firm with extensive experience, NorthBay Solutions intends to help SAP customers in shifting their systems to the cloud landscape as efficiently as possible. Additionally, its latest partnership with SAP presents new avenues for customers to leverage the capabilities of SAP solutions while harnessing the power of AWS Cloud.

The two companies’ collaboration is geared towards assisting clients in achieving long-term business value by accelerating their cloud migration journeys. Combining SAP’s cloud technologies and NorthBay’s consulting services, the alliance also aims to help organisations maximise the value of their IT investments.

Commenting on the innovation partnership, Ahmad remarked:

“NorthBay Solutions is a strong partner to deliver SAP solutions on Cloud. Their advanced consulting and cloud migration expertise is exceptional in the market, and we look forward to harnessing the power of this partnership in the markets we serve.”

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Back in 2017, Martin Dow Marker (MDM) Ltd and Martin Dow Marker Specialties (MDMS) made history as the first pharmaceutical company in Pakistan to implement the SAP S/4 HANA cloud ERP software suite.

In an article published by Business Recorder, they reported that Pakistani Prime Minister, Imran Khan, sends an invitation to SAP to put up software labs in the country. 

Imran Khan explained that Pakistan has been utilising digital solutions, particularly in addressing citizen complaints, improving ease-of-doing-business, and procedural efficiency.

SAP’s Co-CEO, Christian Klein, called out to the Pakistani Prime Minister during the World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting 2020 at Davos, Switzerland.

During the meeting, Pakistani officials such as the Advisor on Commerce Abdul Razaq Dawood, Advisor on Finance Dr. Abdul Hafeez Sheikh, SAPM Dr. Moeed Yusuf, SAPM Syed Zulfigar and Ambassador at Large on Foreign Investment Ali Jehangir Siddiqui were present as well.

Klein reminded PM Imran Khan of SAP’s history with Pakistan that has lasted for two decades. One of SAP’s most significant projects in the country was the digital system used for administering the pensions and salaries of the Government of Pakistan.

The SAP Co-CEO further expressed appreciation about the efforts of the Pakistan government in focusing more on the digitisation of its economic and government sectors, adding that SAP is committed to training young software engineers in Germany. He hopes that these young engineers will be beneficial for software development in the country.

In his speech during the Pakistan Strategy Dialogue at Davos, Switzerland last Wednesday, the Pakistani prime minister put the limelight on the potentials of Pakistan for tourism.

In his statement, he said that top travelling bodies have identified Pakistan as a top travelling destination. He adds:

“We believe that tourism has the potential to earn a lot of foreign exchange for Pakistan.”

PM Imran was also engaged in a meeting with Ahmet Calik, the Chairman of the Turkish company, Calik Holding, a finance company that operates across various sectors such as construction, energy, mining, telecom and textile since the year 1980s.

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