KARACHI: Saudi Arabia and Pakistan have historically been like family to one another and education can be the common thread to stitch them, closer,” says Omar Farooqui, founder of Coded Minds, a global ed-tech company. “Both countries have immense knowledge pools and research-driven institutions. Sharing of knowledge and formation of public-private partnerships can help implement modernization across both nations in terms of bringing 21st-century quantum leap in their respective ways of being.”
Farooqui who belongs to Jeddah has become the first-ever Saudi Educationist who has invested in the private education system in Pakistan. His company Coded Minds Pakistan is set to provide STEM education to about 6 million students across Pakistan.
The present visit of the Pakistani premier to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia may have been read as a regular cordial visit during the holy month of Ramadan; it has revealed many untapped markets and open lots of new doors of opportunities between both countries. According to different sources, more than 30 public and private Saudi companies are keen to invest in Pakistan including Saudi giants like Aramco, SABIC, and ACWA Power. However, Farooqui’s Coded Minds appears to be the only Saudi private venture which is investing in the Pakistani education sector.
Why Pakistan? Farooqui says that [ being a Saudi-owned global company], he has a first movers advantage in the Pakistani education sector. “Pakistan has huge potential in all aspects of business sectors but it remains an untapped market. It needs a first mover to take a chance on it and education is one such sector through policy influence can become a catalyst of change for a nation.”
With ancestors from Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Saudi national, Jeddah raised, Farooqui, is a visible happy man. “I am one of the rarest fortunate who is a living example of the strong bond of both the countries. That’s why I truly believe that education should always have been beyond boundaries by design and it is something we practice every day on our platform.”
While responding that how the world is taking the new avatar of the Kingdom reforms and its growing relations with Pakistan, the second most populous Muslim country and the fifth largest country in the world, he says that the world has no choice but to take notice of the remarkable changes. “The Kingdom has a young hungry population that is by nature entrepreneurial and needs a platform to speak. While Pakistan is the 5th largest country in the world and by natural selection relies on its human capital and large diaspora spread across the world ready willing and able to come back. Both in a way are intertwined in a revolution of sorts. Pakistan- Saudi brotherhood is a strategic wall that is crucial to the future of world trade. Pakistan’s human capital and Saudi Arabian black gold might be combined can have far-reaching consequences. Pakistan can be a testing ground for significant breakthroughs in new-age technology as it becomes a marketplace of talent to tap into,” he added
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