Gilgit Baltistan gets high impact training programs to nurture potential business ideas and upscale startups in adventure tourism

Gilgit Baltistan gets high impact training programs to nurture potential business ideas and upscale startups in adventure tourism

Winter sets in Gilgit Baltistan and with it every socio-economic activity comes to a standstill that otherwise peaks in summers. However this time it was different. It all commenced in November 2019 when Tech. Valley Pakistan brought Accelerate Prosperity Pakistan’s #FastTrackYourGrowth initiative to Gilgit Baltistan in a bid to upgrade the skill set of Region’s youth otherwise making up a big chunk of Gilgit Baltistan’s populace. Under this initiative and that too on the onset of cold and harsh winters, two different programs were initiated. One was to nurture potential business ideas into high impact and high growth business startups and other was to scale up existing businesses to adapt and adopt winter and adventure tourism across Gilgit Baltistan.

A ‘Winter/Adventure Tourism Incubation Program’ was conducted where startups were mentored to enhance their entrepreneurial and business skills through different training, workshops and focus group discussions.

While under Fast track Ghizer specific Ideation program ‘Ideation to Action’ boot camps were organized to foster the process of idea generation and help them turn into a working action plan. Mentors and Trainers were brought in from within the country and few joined from abroad and all in all it was this ‘great hope’ when an idea nurtured into a full blown business. Prior, an extensive and relentless pre-qualification campaign was run to attract best business ideas under Ghizer Ideation program. From all over the district, a total of 300 ideas came under scrutiny and eventually top 40 were picked for ideation.

Similarly, The other program was to promote entrepreneurial mindset with critical thinking and innovative strategies for early stage/pre-revenue startups and Small and Growing Businesses (SGB), which are “commercially viable businesses with a potential to create wealth and jobs” through relevant training, knowledge, advice, and capital. Thus out of 98 applications, 18 startups made it to the final list and accordingly were trained with the best in business.

In this regard, an event was organised at the premises of Karakoram International University in Gilgit to mark the successful conclusion on 6th January 2022 in which the Chief Minister of Gilgit Baltistan Muhammad Khalid Khurshid Khan along with Minister of Tourism Raja Nasir Ali Khan, Government high-ups, Non-governmental organisations representatives, KIU faculty members, students, journalists and media personalities and people from all walk of life participated.

Speaking during the occasion, the Chief Minister of Gilgit Baltistan spoke at length about the immense potential Gilgit Baltistan has both in its human and natural resources. He said:

“I see great improvement in entrepreneurial mindset with critical thinking in bringing about real-time business growth in all respective sectors of the local economy. This is where I can see a lot of potentials where public and private partnership can materialise an exponential growth in key sectors like tourism, mining, agriculture and education”

He further reiterated his government’s resolve in bringing all forces together– public or private, within and without to bring about real-time and sustainable change.

Earlier, the event was lightened up with a series of panel discussions in which professionals, parliamentarians, telco representatives, academia and industry engaged in an animated discussion over challenges and opportunities to build up the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Gilgit Baltistan.

The Tourism Minister, Raja Nasir gave the audience a complete overview of how his ministry under the incumbent administration is transforming the tourism sector into a self-sustaining and vibrant industry.

CEO Tech Valley Pakistan, Mr Umar Farooq thanked the Chief Minister and all the partners who made this significant milestone possible to achieve. He said programs like these have the potential to discover hidden talent in youth and help in polishing their skills.

Earlier in the day, the Country Director, Accelerated Prosperity Tariq Zaman also spoke about the need to transform community assistance from need-based to investment-based initiatives. Vice-Chancellor Karakorum International University Dr Eng Attaullah stressed the importance of incubation centres within the academia and how they have contributed to instilling an entrepreneurial mindset.

Commander SCO, Imran Mansoor was also present at the event who mentioned how pivotal technology is to cater for the growing needs of the booming entrepreneur ecosystem.

Ms Sarwat, General Manager Serena Hotels GB gave a great insight into the hotel industry’s immense potential to diversify into services that could harness winter and adventure tourism in Gilgit Baltistan.