FM Bilawal invites Meta to establish office in Pakistan

• FM has invited a high-ranking Meta official to build a local office to enhance contact between local authorities and the social media giant
• Pakistan mission, the foreign minister met Meta’s Global Affairs President Nick Clegg
• FM thanked the company for donating Rs.125 million for humanitarian assistance to Pakistan

NEW YORK: Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister, has invited a high-ranking Meta official to build a local office to enhance contact between local authorities and the social media giant.

Last year, Facebook rebranded itself to Meta to create the “metaverse,” a shared virtual world that the firm believes will be the replacement for mobile internet.

On the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly’s (UNGA) 77th session, where he is part of the Pakistan mission, the foreign minister met Meta’s Global Affairs President Nick Clegg.

When discussing the potential available in Pakistan, the foreign minister stated that the country has a tech-savvy youthful population (64% under the age of 30), high teledensity, massive digitization of the economy, and a business-friendly regulatory regime.

“Pakistan’s IT sector has experienced rapid growth in recent years, creating new prospects for platforms like Meta to extend their operations in Pakistan,” the foreign minister told a representative of the social media business.

Clegg stated that Meta’s Pakistan team is exclusively made up of Pakistani experts. He informed the foreign minister of Meta’s ongoing connectivity and capacity-building initiatives in Pakistan.

Clegg confirmed Meta’s willingness in continuing to engage with Pakistan to seek ways to improve collaboration in the digital sector.

The government issued the Removal and Blocking of Unlawful Online Content (Procedure, Oversight, and Safeguards) Rules, 2021 in October of last year, forcing social media platforms to register with the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA). However, it has yet to bear fruit.

The foreign minister, in his meeting with President, Global Affairs at Meta Nick Clegg thanked the company for donating Rs.125 million for humanitarian assistance to Pakistan in the wake of the deadly floods.

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He said, “these are testing times for Pakistan and this donation would be helpful for our flood relief operations”.