ISLAMABAD    -    Saudi Arabia’s Prince Fahad bin Mansour yesterday launched a $100 million Saudi Arabia-Pakistan Tech House here, an initiative aimed at creating opportunities through partnerships with information tech­nology (IT) companies in Pakistan. The joint venture is part of the Sau­di government’s Vision 2030 stra­tegic framework, an effort to pivot Saudi Arabia away from oil depen­dency and establish it as a global investment powerhouse with a so­phisticated digital infrastructure. Saudi Arabia is estimated to have mobilized around $500 billion to achieve the goals, including the de­velopment of new cities.

Prince Fahad unveiled his plans to set up a tech house earlier this year during Pakistan’s largest tech con­ference, Future Fest. He had said the purpose of the tech house would be to improve business relations be­tween Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.

The tech house will be established under ILSA Interactive, a company co-founded by Prince Fahad and Pa­kistani entrepreneur Salman Nasir in 2009 that has offices in Riyadh and Lahore. “Today it is my honour to an­nounce the launch of the Saudi Paki­stan Tech House,” Prince Fahad said during the launching ceremony in Is­lamabad. “Our venture in Pakistan will be a catalyst for this partner­ship to provide a platform for great­er collaboration and growth,” he said. He added the venture was a new di­mension for greater cooperation and strengthening the longstanding stra­tegic relationship between the two countries. “I would like to re-assert that we are looking forward to creat­ing more than 1,000 jobs in Pakistan and are expecting to have more than 300 projects with a minimum cost of $100 million in the next five years,” the prince added.

He expressed the confidence in Pa­kistan’s workforce and startups to form partnerships that would prove to be a game-changer for both coun­tries’ IT sectors.

“I look forward to seeing Paki­stan’s entrepreneurs and tech com­panies to further boost the relation­ship between our two countries,” he said. He further said that Saudi Ara­bia planned to have a Saudi Tech House in every region, from the east to the west, under Saudi Arabia’s Vi­sion 2030, given under the roadmap of Crown Prince Muhammed bin Sal­man. Saudi Ambassador Nawaf Bin Said Al-Maliki while speaking on the occasion said that he feels very hap­py for participating in the opening ceremony of Saudi-Pakistan Tech House which will further strengthen cooperation in the information tech­nology field between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.

Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Youth Affairs Shaza Fatima Khawaja praised the Saudi crown prince’s leadership in mod­ernizing the Kingdom.