Federal Minister for Science and Technology of Pakistan, Fawad Chaudhry, has a message for Elon Musk: “Dear Elon Musk your next destination may be Pakistan where 68 percent of the world population lives within 3.5 hours flight radius from Islamabad,” he shared on Twitter.
Dear @elonmusk your next destination may be Pak,68% of world population lives within 3.5 hrs fligt radius from Isld,we offer ten years zero tax facility and custom free import for factory setup,no other country may offer,plus we are worlds 3rd biggest freelance software exporters https://t.co/CkHznHAQ1P
— Ch Fawad Hussain (@fawadchaudhry) January 5, 2020
There is even an offer on the table for Tesla — a 10 year zero-tax facility and custom-free importing for the factory setup. This is actually pretty awesome if you look at it from a business owner’s perspective.
There are some comments to the minister’s tweet that mention Osama bin Laden — the truth is that no one country is 100% without a past, and I believe that as a world, we can grow from hating one another to loving one another. Yes, Pakistan has a bit of history, but Elon’s influence is felt worldwide and I believe his mentality should be embraced globally.
The people of Pakistan would definitely benefit from having a Tesla factory, and perhaps having a factory there and selling Tesla vehicles could bring electric vehicles to places in the region that desperately need it and help with neighborly relations in that regard. Remember, the mission is to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy. For Tesla to do that, factories will need to be in many places of the world. Pakistan’s tax incentive packed as offered by Minister Chaudhry now makes it a more compelling place.
Minister Chaudhry mentioned something else as well. Pakistan is the world’s third-largest freelance software exporter. In other words, Pakistan has a lot to offer Tesla on the technology side of the coin.
In an opinion piece by the New York Times back in 2015, Bina Shah wrote about Pakistan’s potential to be the next software hub. She writes that Pakistan’s I.T. sector “is carving a niche for itself as a favored place to go for freelance I.T. programmers, software coders and app designers.” She also mentioned that there were 1,500 registered I.T. companies in Pakistan at the time.
That was five years ago. In 2019, Forbes listed Pakistan and the 4th fastest growing freelance market in the world. Freelance covers quite a bit (I am a freelance writer, for example, as well as a freelance artist), and I.T. is definitely included in that definition. Whether or not Elon decides to open a factory in Pakistan has yet to be determined, but the offer is definitely there and the world can benefit from having more Teslas in it. We certainly expect Tesla to build more gigafactories in the coming decade.
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