All Answers: Re: [pakgrid] Pakistan and its Image Problem- By Google CEO Eric Schmidt

Tuesday, 26 June 2012

Re: [pakgrid] Pakistan and its Image Problem- By Google CEO Eric Schmidt

Thanks Wahaj Sb for the Brief ...

While the audience he met is mostly business and education community the primary agenda is still unclear, Visit for "understanding of ground realities related to War on terror" from a CEO of google doesnt make much sense to me. However on the other hand if he is meeting with business and investor group along with educationists, it shows that google has interest in some investment in Pakistan ??

Apparently he had also meet with one of the political party office bearers and Prime Minister ? . - So to me still the objectives are not very much clear. Could it be an asset acquisition directly by google in Pakistan ? is it some thing related to Satellite foot print discussions ? an Infrastructure development plan in Afghanistan ?

/HS

On Sat, Jun 23, 2012 at 4:01 PM, Wahaj us Siraj/MGMT <wahaj@dsl.net.pk> wrote:

I was among one the group who met Eric Schmidt at a dinner in Islamabad. The members included:

Mian Mansha
Hussain Dawood

Dr. Adil Najam, VC, LUMS
Dr. Umar Saif, Chairman, Punjab IT Board

Lars Christian Iuel, CEO, Telenor
Amin Hashwani

Jehan Ara, President, PASHA
Musharraf Zaidi, Ministry of Foreign Affairs

(please forgive me if I've missed a few names)

It seems that purpose of Eric's visit was to get some insight of ground realities in Pakistan particularly relating to war on terror, US-Pak Government relations, diplomatic tensions, etc. He was also very interested in broadband proliferation and tech entrepreneurs in Pakistan. We recommended him that Google should increase its footprint and visibility in Pakistan by establishing a full office and provide technical guidance, training, etc., to young entrepreneurs.

Eric was carrying a blackberry and a young tech entrepreneur, Haris, asked him why he wasn't using an Android phone. He said that his android phone was having roaming issues in Pakistan and Afghanistan (and perhaps in some other countries), that's why he was carrying a blackberry!

Mian Mansha gave Eric and his Google colleagues a very positive insight on capabilities of Pakistani people and a bright future of Pakistan. His punch line was "after 30 years, Americans would be lining up to get visas for Pakistan".

Kind regards….Wahaj

From: pakgrid@yahoogroups.com [mailto:pakgrid@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Shiraz Bashir
Sent: Friday, June 22, 2012 1:37 AM
To: pakgrid@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [pakgrid] Pakistan and its Image Problem- By Google CEO Eric Schmidt

Did anyone from this list met him ? If yes, please share your thoughts.

https://plus.google.com/u/0/104233435224873922474/posts/4UcNomnhipX

-Shiraz