By: Muhammad Sagheer
ISLAMABAD: After the success of Future Fest 2022 on May 13, 14, 15 in Islamabad; Arzish Azam; Pakistan’s leading advocate for the Blockchain industry, was invited to represent Pakistan as a speaker at the BSV Global Blockchain Convention held at Grand Hyatt Dubai under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Saud bin Saqr al Qasimi, Member of the Supreme Council – Ruler of Ras Al Khaimah.
Arzish Azam is a leading advocate for blockchain in Pakistan, and a Former Adviser to the Ministry of Science and Technology on Emerging Technologies. In collaboration with them he hosted Pakistan’s first ever Blockchain Summit; Future Fest, inviting BSV Blockchain to Pakistan along with a meeting with the President, where the premier announced the call to form a National Blockchain Strategy. This led to him being invited to speak at BSV’s Global Blockchain Convention.
Arzish took the stage in Dubai, explaining that as the 5th largest country in the world, Pakistan is currently housing a booming tech industry, and with a tech base as big as its current one, Pakistan cannot afford to miss out on the blockchain opportunity – especially due to its geographical closeness to Dubai which now serves as the ‘crypto capital’ of the world.
Founding President of the BSV Blockchain Jimmy Nguyen stated “Our Global BSV blockchain delegation was highly impressed by the energy and vision of Future Fest: to empower Pakistan’s young generation to fulfill their and the nation’s technology potential as if there are no limits upon what they can achieve. While the sentiment to support emerging industries was shared by Pakistan’s Finance Minister Miftah Ismail in his keynote concluding the final session of Future Fest on 16 May.
According to some statistics, from March 2021 – 2022, Pakistan alone has traded around $18.60 billion in crypto-currency and has as many as 20 million users whereas registered investors in stock exchange are a mere 220,000.
The legality of crypto trading is unclear in Pakistan, but still the crypto market has been rapidly growing. Arzish stated “There is a future for crypto everywhere and Pakistan is the same; more than 2 million people are investing in crypto and this is happening while there’s no clarity on whether it’s legal or illegal.” In his closing remarks he reiterated that since this industry has very high public demand and can help Pakistan’s economic growth, we should all figure out the way to use it for Pakistan’s benefit.
This session also featured a discussion between Dr. Murtaza Syed – Governor (Deputy) State Bank of Pakistan; Tariq Malik – Chairman NADRA; and Imran Haleem Shaikh, COO – JS Bank, and Noman Azhar – CDO JS Bank and Head of Zindigi on how the tech industry can provide financial stability to the youth with the help of government and private sector initiatives and support.