Election Section
Pakistan to close six-month- old tech office
LOS ALTOS — The deflated tech bubble and troubles at home are forcing Pakistan to close a 6-month-old Silicon Valley office.
Pakistan opened its Office for Information Technology Development in June — as waves of layoffs washed over high-profile area firms.
The word came down from the Pakistani government in October and the consulate is set to close by month’s end, according to the San Jose Mercury News. Its goal was to tie together valley companies and the nascent Pakistani tech industry.
“We were basically in a pre-start-up phase,” said Toheed Ahmad, consulate general for information technology development.
Even before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the tech downturn here had made “the viability of such a consulate untenable,” according to the Pakistani English-language newspaper Dawn.
