Emerging Technologies and Their Implications explored the transformative impact of artificial intelligence, digital assets, innovation policy, and entrepreneurship on Pakistan’s future during a session held as part of Paklaunch UNConference26. The discussion addressed the opportunities and challenges that emerging technologies present for startups, investors, and policymakers alike, while also examining what it will actually take to build a globally competitive innovation ecosystem within Pakistan rather than one that merely follows developments happening elsewhere.
The conversation featured Bilal Bin Saqib, Chairman of the Pakistan Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority, in discussion with Junaid Iqbal, Founder and CEO of Salt Ventures, pairing a regulatory perspective with an investor’s viewpoint on how emerging technologies are likely to shape Pakistan’s broader economic and entrepreneurial trajectory. This combination gave the session a somewhat unusual vantage point compared to more conventional startup panels, addressing not just where opportunities exist for founders but also how regulatory frameworks around digital assets and virtual asset activity are evolving alongside the technology itself.
Given Saqib’s role overseeing virtual asset regulation in Pakistan, the discussion likely touched on how digital assets are being positioned within the country’s broader financial and technology policy, an area that has drawn increasing attention as digital asset activity grows globally while regulatory clarity in many emerging markets, including Pakistan, continues to develop. Pairing this regulatory lens with Iqbal’s perspective as an active investor through Salt Ventures allowed the conversation to move between policy considerations and the practical realities founders and investors face when building or funding ventures in this space.
The session formed part of the broader programming at Paklaunch UNConference26, an event that has increasingly served as a venue for substantive conversations between policymakers, investors, and founders on the direction of Pakistan’s technology and innovation ecosystem. Discussions of this kind, bringing together regulatory and investment perspectives on emerging technologies such as AI and digital assets, reflect a growing recognition that building a globally competitive innovation ecosystem in Pakistan requires coordination between the people shaping policy and the people deploying capital into the ventures that policy will eventually govern.
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