Bravo, Prime Minster Imran Khan for such a critically needed tactical decision to create Digital Pakistan Initiative with Tania Aidrus from Google to return to homeland and lead the project
The timing is perfect
You have the right vision, she the right expertise, nation anxious and business community ready but the biggest challenges will be the fixing of digital-divides v/s mental-divides amongst Public Sectors where the current practices of trillion rupees paper transactions stuffed in truck loads suddenly transferred to instantly accessible digital and well-balanced columns. Fight with all forces the lingering bureaucracies; crush all corruption blocking such critical uplifts and let Pakistan dance on freely available digital platform economy and shine along with other nations. All this is achievable under your leadership.
Reality Check: This November 11th, Alibaba records $38 Billion of sales within 24 hours. Around the world, currently, there are 100 nations with less than $38 Billion dollars in annual GDP. Imagine if this single company performed at the same rate for next 365 days, it would equal to annual GDP of Japan, Germany, India, France, UK and Canada all combined. Bravo Alibaba, well done, the nations of the world in shock is now fondling in own toolboxes looking for rusty screwdrivers.
Pakistan is an entrepreneurial nation; all sorts of founders, owners and entrepreneurs including senior management can further thrive on Platform Economy
Optimization of Skilled-Citizenry: Today physical work is being replaced by “smart” work, and smart work replaced by smarter machines. The masters of robots will be the smart unlearners, while the slaves of robots will be the deniers of change. Make lifelong learning mandatory and use digital platforms to bring about a change in knowledge and skills of the nation, all the deployment strategies and tools are already there for a long time but shy of Digital Pakistan.
Fear not the times, rather fear the illiteracy of being unable to read the times.
Fact: The world can easily absorb unlimited exportable ideas in unlimited vertical markets.
Fact: The well-designed innovative ideas are worthy of such quadrupled volumes.
Fact: The entrepreneurial and dormant talents of a nation are capable of such tasks.
Fact: The new global age skills, knowledge and execution are now the missing links
The four areas where Digital Pakistan can play a powerful transformational role
The Enterprises Groups: This is where small and medium size businesses of the old and new world trying hard to expand in global space but achieving little or no progress. Stuck often with internal digitization of operations challenges they are pushing decade old methods to exportability and international alliances. Now new digital platforms will uplift such sectors.
The Trade Groups: Trade Associations and Chambers of Commerce may ignore old styles and suddenly become digitally savvy shinny butterflies to navigate around the world while showcasing their entire membership with colorful profiles across 200 nations and attract global business.
The Public Sector Groups: Government departments mandated to foster economic growth across all vertical sectors could transform and rise to the compatible level of accuracy speed and efficiency like far too many other nations. This will not only boost national economy but also calm restless citizenry and avoid windy storms of populism. Massive induction, orientation and regimented execution will be required. Pakistan has a great military history and regimentation will be a matter of preferred choice to achieve such rapid transformation.
The Founders Groups: Pakistan is an entrepreneurial nation; all sorts of founders, owners and entrepreneurs including senior management can further thrive on Platform Economy. The entrepreneurial leadership must demonstrate expertise on digital platform economy to become regional and global players. Digital superiority now ensures global image supremacy over funding and factories.
365 Days Tasks: Now that Digital Pakistan initiative is in place, how fast can Pakistan mobilize One Million Small Medium Enterprises and platform economies and by showcasing them across 200 nations create bounce of trade activity. Allow 100 Chambers and Trade Associations enjoy digital speed and connectivity. Such national mobilization on digital platforms is not new funding dependent but execution starved.
Digital Pakistan can bring new umbrella
Nation has wealth but mostly in hidden talents; Natural resources are mostly unearthed, and underutilized; National human resources are untapped and mostly abandoned; National cultural and historic features caught in divisive conflicts; National intelligentsia developed over centuries now isolated or outcast.
Nation is number one tourist spot for 2020 but lack destinations and expertise. Nation already flooded with massive innovations, but lack massive commercialization.
Nation has over certifications and degrees but seriously lack business directions.
All such is now intertwined under this new power umbrella of Digital Pakistan and leadership of Tanis Aidrus at a point when a Nation ranked 6th as the largest population, ranked 66th on global exports and ranked 147th on human development index, can now climb rapidly with new metamorphoses.
Staying focused on Digital Pakistan, creating authoritative knowledge and pragmatic solutions packed, industry by industry specific Round-tables discussions with input from Chambers and Trade Associations are always good starting points. The national mobilization of entrepreneurialism on platform economies is now new realities of our times.
The writer is Chairman Expothon Worldwide www.expothon.com