Ahsan Iqbal Engages Pakistani Diaspora and Silicon Valley
By Elaine Pasquini
Silicon Valley, CA: On July 9, 2026, Pakistani Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Ahsan Iqbal addressed a breakfast reception hosted in honor of the Pakistani community where he called upon overseas Pakistanis to place “Pakistan First” above all political differences and unite under one national identity to contribute towards the country's economic transformation.
The minister emphasized that Pakistan's future prosperity depends on economic self-reliance driven by exports, innovation, technology and human capital development.
Pakistan’s five-year National Economic Transformation Plan (URAAN) is steering the country towards becoming a “knowledge-based, technology-driven and sustainable economy, with an ambitious target of transforming Pakistan into a one trillion-dollar economy by 2035 and increasing exports to over US$100 billion,” he said.
Highlighting the critical role of the Pakistani diaspora, Minister Iqbal urged overseas Pakistanis to serve as ambassadors of Pakistan's exports by promoting investment, technology transfer, entrepreneurship and international business linkages.
He pointed out that the United States remains Pakistan's largest export market, making the Pakistani-American community an important bridge for expanding bilateral trade and investment.
Artificial intelligence is a historic opportunity for Pakistan, he said, relating that the government is establishing national centers of excellence in artificial intelligence, cyber security, big data, robotics, genomics and quantum computing to prepare Pakistan for the next technological revolution.
The minister also highlighted the ongoing US-Pakistan Knowledge Corridor initiative aimed at developing world-class human capital through partnerships with leading international universities.
During an interactive discussion with community members, several proposals were presented to strengthen Pakistan's innovation ecosystem. These included reorienting Pakistani consulates to function as hubs for export promotion, technology cooperation and investment facilitation; establishing advisory groups comprising Pakistani experts in Silicon Valley to support AI adoption, curriculum reforms and youth digital skills; promoting partnerships between Silicon Valley professionals and Pakistan's National Innovation Centers; and attracting leading global technology companies to establish research and development facilities in Pakistan to capitalize on the country's highly competitive engineering talent.
The minister welcomed these proposals and emphasized that Pakistan must build on its recent diplomatic achievements by translating international goodwill into stronger economic partnerships, innovation-led growth and technology collaboration.
During his visit, Minister Iqbal also held a meeting with Saeed Amidi, Founder and CEO of Plug and Play Tech Center, one of Silicon Valley's leading startup innovation platforms, to discuss opportunities for strengthening Pakistan's startup ecosystem and connecting its entrepreneurs with global innovation networks.
During the meeting, Plug and Play expressed interest in partnering with Pakistan to accelerate up to 300 startups from the country's leading universities, connect Pakistani entrepreneurs with more than 600 global corporate partners, and help startups achieve product-market fit, raise investment and expand internationally while maintaining their core operations in Pakistan. The company also offered to issue a letter of intent for establishing offices in Islamabad and Karachi and shared its successful partnership models implemented in Türkiye, Saudi Arabia, Italy, Germany and several other countries.
Welcoming the proposal, the minister accepted the offer in principle and invited Plug and Play to share the letter of intent along with its proposed areas of collaboration so that the government could facilitate a high-level visit of the company's delegation to Pakistan. He highlighted Pakistan’s significant competitive advantage in terms of its young talent pool, cost-effective engineering workforce and the government's continued investment in digital and IT skills development.
With the right international partnerships, Pakistan’s rapidly growing startup culture has the potential to emerge as a major regional innovation hub, he added.
During his engagements in Northern California, Minister Iqbal also participated in an AI and technology interaction with leading Silicon Valley professionals and attended a dinner reception hosted by members of the Pakistani-American community. The discussions focused on advancing cooperation in artificial intelligence, innovation, entrepreneurship, investment and technology transfer.
Members of the Pakistani community reaffirmed their commitment to supporting Pakistan’s economic transformation through investment, knowledge exchange and technology collaboration, while strongly endorsing the minister’s message of “Pakistan First” and pledging to contribute to the national mission of URAAN Pakistan.
(Elaine Pasquini is a freelance journalist. Her reports appear in the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs and Nuze.Ink.)
