It is a challenging time for both Pakistan and the United States, but both are making progress; given what they are dealing with, differences between the two countries will not be instantly resolved, observed Dilwar A. Syed, a member of US President's Advisory Commission on Asian Americans.
The Pakistani origin American was talking to Business Recorder here on Monday. Dilwar A Syed, who is on a visit to Pakistan under the Speakers' programme of the US State Department, pointed out that the US is committed to move forward and its presence in Pakistan reflects that commitment. "Given the state of affairs, improvement in Pak-US relationship will take time, especially when there is a fast moving environment," he added.
According to him, it is a challenging time for both Pakistan and America and under the prevailing circumstances the people in helm of affairs have a difficult job in their hands. However, while focusing the US both the Pakistani community and Pakistani diplomats in the US are doing a very vital job to educate about Pakistan in broader way. He held meetings during his visit, he had engaged with various spectrums of people, including businessmen, academia, media and students, and he assured that he would narrate their stories to the concerned quarters.
When asked what message he is taking back to the US, he said they need to continue to actively engage Pakistan as well as its people. "Pakistan is an important place; it has huge potential and leadership it can provide, even for the world. Pakistan is more than security; it is about economic relations and cultural impact. Hence, we need to stay engaged with Pakistan and in this connection the Pakistanis in the US can play an important role," he added.
Apart from being a member of President's Advisory Commission on Asian Americans, appointed by US President Barack Obama way back in 2010, Dilawar is also a successful US entrepreneur. He is President and CEO of Yonja Media Group, an emerging markets internet company. Prior to joining Yonja Media, he was head of business strategy and operations in the platform division at Yahoo.
Being closely associated with internet world and social media (a new phenomena that refers to the use of web-based and mobile technologies to turn communication into interactive dialogue), he believed that by using the social media platform, the youth of Pakistan can make a difference in changing the circumstances of the country. He gave the example of Egypt and other Muslim countries where a movement started on Facebook grew in to a street power. "However, in Pakistan we do not see that potential being used at all. We do not use social media in productive way to take the society forward," he added.
He observed that the Pakistani youth is our biggest asset and also most under tapped resource; they should get inspiration from Egypt. "The youth should spare time for productive use of social media by interacting with friends and making network on an issue that creates a public and social impact," he suggested.
Dilawar saw a huge potential in the Pakistani information technology industry and added that the potential lies in domestic market. He said the IT sector can serve domestic industry, where millions of dollars worth opportunity lies for local software houses to develop software for them. He also saw mobile as another potential area for the Pakistani IT sector. He said a progress is seen in mobile application/service development, but there is still huge room for expansion in this area.
He said although Pakistan is producing IT experts, but not enough of them. He said in the neighbouring country Nehru came up with an innovative idea of setting up dozen Indian Institute of Technologists (IITs) back in the 50s and those have been the backbone of the Indian IT industry, which produced hordes of very talented workers. In case of Pakistan, unfortunately, we cannot find a single such institution, he added.
He pointed out that technology industry played a vital role in shaping India today and the contribution of the Indian Diaspora cannot be ignored; those entrepreneurs sitting in the Silicon Valley brought technology to India and the Indians had the talent to deliver on that. "Pakistan can be no different; Pakistani Diasporas are very enabled and successful in Silicon Valley. We have worked with biggest brands and even helped build some biggest brands in the world. If we can build better bridges with technology centres of Pakistan, we can certainly take that industry forward, which in turn can help the country's economy," he added.
When asked about the challenges the Pakistani Diaspora face in Pakistan, he replied energy and law and order situation are two discouraging factors. He said it is not possible to run a global-based website on 8-10 hour electricity supply; this is a severe issue that that affects all economic activities, including IT industry. "Security is another challenge, Karachi has huge IT workforce potential and their work suffers due to law and order situation," he added.
Dilawar is also the former president of Organisation of Pakistani Entrepreneur Network (OPEN) Silicon Valley, a non-profit organisation focused primarily on the promotion of entrepreneurship and business leadership in the Pakistani-American community. He feels the OPEN experience is very much applicable in Pakistan, which can change the country, in fact making it an 'Asian Tiger'. He observed that the Pakistani entrepreneurs are very enterprising but they lack mentoring and networking. "Hence, there is a need to promote entrepreneurship through regular mentors and networking initiatives," he added.
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