Google opened its first office in Pakistan’s Islamabad on August 18, and it was inaugurated by the country’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
Google Vice President Global Affairs Wilson L. White, David Weller and their team were also present at the inauguration ceremony.
The development was announced by Minister of State for IT and Telecommunication Shaza Fatima Khawaja in a post on X.
Speaking on the occasion, Prime Minister Shehbaz said there was “great scope” for a fruitful partnership with Google and for strengthening bilateral ties in various areas, Dawn reported. The PM remarked that Pakistan is going through a major digital transformation. In many areas of our governance, there is a youth bulge and we can really turn around Pakistan’s fortunes.
Meanwhile, Google’s vice president said: “Google has been investing in and committed to Pakistan for over a decade, and today we have reached a milestone where we are opening a local office in Pakistan.”
On August 21, the Government of Pakistan and Google signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the promotion of country’s digital transformation and innovation by focusing on provision of digital skills.
The MoU was signed during a reception hosted in honour of the Google team under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Business Recorder reported.
Under the agreement, Pakistan and Google will cooperate to expand the Google Career Certificates programme to promote digital skills in Pakistan. Google has set a target of providing 150,000 Google Career Certificates in Pakistan in 2026.
The two sides also agreed to cooperate in increasing Pakistani students’ access to Google’s advanced artificial intelligence (AI) tools, and Pakistani students will be provided free access to advanced AI tools for a year, including Google AI Plus and Gemini.
Both sides further agreed to cooperate in establishing an AI Centre of Excellence in Islamabad. The centre will train Pakistani youth and human resources according to the requirements of the global market.
