Future Fest concludes with talk on roadmap to future

Revenue & Economic Affairs Miftah Ismail has Pakistan has a rapidly growing youth population and they are the key to national growth.

He was speaking at a panel discussion organised by the Zindigi Future Fest on Monday. Pakistan's largest tech conference and expo, powered by JS Bank closed out on Sunday with a panel discussion on a topic on Roadmap to the Future.
The minister thanked the tech enthusiasts for their hard work and assured them of government support in terms of tax facilities and
other benefits.
Dr Murtaza Syed - Governor State Bank of Pakistan, Tariq Malik – Chairman NADRA, and Imran Haleem Shaikh, COO – JS Bank also discussed how the tech industry can provide financial stability to the youth with the help of government and private sector initiatives and support. Noman Azhar– CDO JS Bank and Head of Zindigi moderated the session.
Miftah said that the government is working on bringing other potential payment partners to support the freelancer community to increase employment and business opportunities in Pakistan.

He promised to reach out to this community and address their concerns in the upcoming budget.
Dr. Murtaza Syed, Governor State Bank of Pakistan acknowledged Startup Grind and Zindigi said that such events are the need of the time. He appreciated the support of NADRA especially in introducing RAAST, which allows mobile numbers to operate as a Bank account number.
Talking about the digital transformation, he mentioned RAAST is being used for the transfer of dividends and pensions, and moving forward it will be utilised for not just payments but also fund requests as well.
Tariq Malik, Chairman NADRA said there is a liberal regulatory framework and together with the support of SBP the launch of the RAAST project was possible.
He discussed how NADRA has supported in bringing people in the tax net as opposed to a handful of people paying the taxes.

Talking about digitization he shared how E-Sahulat Franchise has helped students earn for themselves.
The introduction of Biometric verification supported by NADRA has evolved the process of account opening and supported the Banks to onboard customers even without having a physical branch.
Imran Shaikh thanked the Governor State Bank of Pakistan for the support of numerous initiatives on policy and regulatory framework in building the banking ecosystem.