The impending establishment of a contact office in Pakistan, as well as investment objectives, are the key themes of conversation.
After connection measures are completed, the minister forecasts that Facebook users will more than quadruple in the next few years.
Meta is ecstatic about Pakistan’s fast expanding internet access and surge in internet users.
On Wednesday, Syed Aminul Haque, the federal minister for information technology and telecommunications, encouraged Facebook parent company Meta to create a presence in Pakistan.
The Ministry of Information and Telecommunications stated in a series of tweets that the minister had met with a senior Meta delegation there.
It went on to say that the discussions centred on investments and the future establishment of a contact office in Pakistan.
The seminar was attended by Khalil Hashmi, Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Geneva, and Dr. Zafar Iqbal, Pakistan’s Ambassador to Romania.
Haris Mahmood Chaudhry, the chief executive of the Universal Service Fund, briefed the team about Pakistan’s broadband plans.
Dr. Ismail Shah, Dr. Robert Pepper, Thomas Navin, Michael Setlin, Mark Gerward, and Alaria Bencivenga were all members of the Facebook delegation.
There are more than 45 million Facebook users among Pakistan’s 220 million population. Following the completion of the connecting projects, this figure will more than quadruple in the next few years.
According to Haque, who was mentioned by the government, Facebook has to have an office in Pakistan so that it may engage with people as soon as possible.
On the other hand, the ministry stated that Meta was pleased with Pakistan’s rapidly expanding connectivity and surge in internet users.
Mutual cooperation is required for the usage of the metaverse as well as the future of the Internet.
The delegation argued that Metaverse might provide long-term economic advantages to Pakistan and revealed that a member of its team will soon go there.
This month, a Cabinet member has urged Meta to open an office in Pakistan twice.
Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari proposed last week that a top Meta executive open the company’s office in Pakistan in order to improve engagement between the local government and the social media powerhouse.
The foreign minister visited Meta’s Global Affairs President Nick Clegg on the outside of the United Nations General Assembly’s (UNGA) 77th session, where he is a part of the delegation representing Pakistan.
Speaking on Pakistan’s potential, the foreign minister said that the country has a young, tech-savvy population (64% of whom are under 30), a high teledensity, significant economic digitalization, and a business-friendly regulatory framework.
According to the foreign minister, Pakistan’s IT sector has recently undergone fast growth, opening up new opportunities for platforms like Meta to expand their operations in the country.
According to Clegg, the whole Meta Pakistan team is made up of Pakistani expertise. He updated the foreign minister on the connectivity and capacity-building efforts Meta is now doing in Pakistan.
Clegg verified Meta’s wish to continue engaging with Pakistan in order to research methods to strengthen their connection online.
Under the government’s Removal and Blocking of Unlawful Online Content (Procedure, Oversight, and Safeguards) Rules, 2021, which were formed in October of last year, social media platforms are obliged to register with the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA). But it hasn’t yielded any results thus yet.
