Government takes the rein, vows to launch incubators with coworking spaces in Pakistan

The Minister of State for Information Technology and Telecom, Anusha Rehman, has announced the government’s plan to launch a national incubation program to encourage entrepreneurship in the country.

Announced today at the 44th Board of Directors meeting of National ICT R&D fund, the program will include the establishment of a fully-fledged “National Incubation Center”. They have also brought the National Information Technology Board (NITB) onboard to provide working space for the incubatees. The National Incubation Center will act as the government’s official incubator for Pakistani entrepreneurs.

Calling the young entrepreneurs of this country an asset, Anusha Rehman said that the government is now focused on their capacity building through an appropriate policy measure. The first step will be the establishment of the Incubation Center which will be funded by the ICT R&D Fund.

Seeing the recent outburst of talent in the country in the form of dozens of innovative new startups, a number of incubators and accelerators have started functioning in the country.

Just today, telecom operator Telenor’s very own startup accelerator “Velocity” went live with pitches from eight entrepreneurs from all over the country. However, there is a dearth of officially-government backed incubators, save for PITB’s Launchpad, and it is really good news for the entrepreneurs of the country that the government is finally starting to pay attention to this sector. The government even signed an agreement with Austin’s Economic Development program for a two year exchange of entrepreneurs program.

These may seem like baby steps as compared to the laborious work being done in our neighbouring country with their recently-unveiled startup action plan, but at least it is a step in the right direction.

Source- ProPakistani