Lahore: To encourage Pakistani entrepreneurs, the Pakistani government is creating a Rs. 1 billion venture capital fund under the National Investment Trust Limited (NITL).

President Arif Alvi said the government was creating a venture capital fund to help Pakistani companies during PakLaunch’s first conference, which was conducted electronically on Wednesday to expose Pakistan’s startups to a worldwide audience.

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President Alvi had said in a previous version of this article that the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) was establishing a Rs1 billion venture capital fund, which the SECP refuted. The SECP has subsequently stated that NITL will create the fund, with the SECP providing investment permissions.

The president had stated at the conference that Pakistan was the world’s fifth most populated country, with a large youth bulge, the majority of whom were educated and spoke English.

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The SECP had denied that it had established or was in the process of establishing a venture capital fund to invest in startups, and the president was referring to NITL. “The SECP is a regulator and hence cannot create a fund,” a spokeswoman for the SECP told this reporter.

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