By Syed M. Aslam
Apr 02 - 08, 2001
Karachi proudly hosted the first ITCN (IT Commerce
Network) Asia Exhibition and Conference. The ITCN Asia 2001, the
first-ever major international IT event held in Pakistan, was
participated in by leading regional as well as global IT players
providing them with unique opportunity to make personal contact for
possible partnerships, joint ventures for making inroads into new
markets. It to was also aimed at promote the region, and of course
Karachi, as a vibrant global IT player on the world map.
ITCN Asia brought together global IT professionals,
institutional buyers, software developers, hardware producers,
educational institutions, networking/Internet Service Providers, etc.
to Karachi to give it the desired exposure. More than 150 exhibitors
— both local and international, big and small, displayed their
products, services, expertise at 300 booths spread over 7,000 square
meters and three halls.
The interest that the Exhibition generated among
the people was so great that there were great crowds outside the gates
on the opening day, March 24 which continued till the exhibition
closed on March 28, after being extended for two extra days. This also
resulted in great mayhem fueling the traditional heavy-handedness of
the police and paramilitary Rangers.
The Chief Executive, General Pervez Musharraf, may
not even be aware of the loss of goodwill, on the part of the
organisers, supporters and exhibitors hours before his scheduled
inauguration on the opening day. PAGE personally witnessed the
plight of hordes of exhibitors, including foreign, as well as
organisers with valid passes who were not allowed to enter the
premises. The 'security check' resulted in closed entrance trapping
exhibitors, volunteers and others inside without food for hours. Those
of them who were outside the gates were not allowed to get in. The
exhibition remained practically closed hours before the Chief
Executive's visit to the extreme inconvenience and consternation of
exhibitors, organisers and volunteers trapped within and outside the
unpassable gates. Even the media and press people which were issued
the passes were not allowed to get in.
The situation did not get any less formidable the
second day. The police and paramilitary Rangers baton charged the
visitors having valid passes twice. A fat Ranger official carrying a
megaphone told the people that the exhibition was closed at 3 pm, five
hours ahead of the scheduled time. Asking the people to 'go home', the
official was backed by juniors with cocked heavy weapons and deadly
facial expressions. It was the repetition of the previous day all over
again with access denied to media and trapping the exhibitors,
organisers, coordinators, sponsors on both sides of the gate.
As if this was not enough, expensive multimedia
equipment and Lab Top computer were reported stolen by two exhibitors.
There were also reports that a number of foreign exhibitors were
planning to sue the organisers of the Exhibition for extreme
disorganisation which severely restricted the number of visitors. The
exhibition remained practically closed to the public despite the
announced selected hours. What kind of impression the exhibitors,
particularly foreign, would have taken back home witnessing the
extreme disorganisation, inconvenience, and the all-prevalent
heavy-handedness?
Federal Minister for Science and Technology, Dr
Atta-Ur-Rahman, claimed that Pakistan acquired $ 70 million worth of
IT orders while it expects to receive another $ 50 million worth of
orders soon. He made the disclosure while speaking at the dinner
hosted by Sindh Governor Muhammad Mian Soomro for the delegates of the
ITCN Conference.
A number of Memorandum of Understandings were
signed at exhibition. The US-based multinational Unigraphics Solutions
and SIMCON International, a local company providing engineering/IT
services including training, consultancy, software development, design
and engineering. The agreement will help Unigraphics to expand its
business in Pakistan. The managing director of Unigraphics, Tim
Norman, said that his company would help bring Pakistan at par with
international standards of CAD/CAM applications and would offer
affordable solutions for all the engineering universities in the
country to help develop a hi-tech work force. The CEO of SIMCON,
Salahuddin Siddiqui expressed hope that the agreement would result in
a minimum $ 10 million from 2002.
Ecommerce Gateway Private Limited of Singapore, one
of the organiser of the exhibition, signed a MOU worth $ 5 million
with the Amjad Ahsan Infotech for developing a state-of-art biometric
technology for commercial and civil applications. The two companies
will also cooperate in the local manufacturing of hardware related to
biometric technology.
Ecommerce Gateway signed another MoU with CresSoft,
one of the top software developer of Pakistan, which has its head
office in the US and labs in Pakistan. The agreement would help
CresSoft and Ecommerce to collectively bid for a project 'SeaWeb' in
Malaysia.
Another MoU was signed between E-tech Group; a
Karachi-based internet service provider, computer hardware seller and
the developer of first international Pakistani portal; and Malaheq
Information Technology of Saudi Arabia. US Publishers, one of the
event supporter, signed a MoU with Miller Freeman Publishers of
Singapore, to introduce a line of IT news in Pakistan.
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