More venture capital than anywhere else, a mass of smart and risk-taking people, a number of high-tech companies and universities and a range of attorneys and publicists could just be enablers of an ecosystem that makes the San Francisco Bay area so different.

Taking a cue from its success stories, Abraaj Capital of Saudi Arabia which owns majority shareholding in Karachi Electric Supply Company pulled together a host of technology experts, venture capitalists and entrepreneurs from Silicon Valley to Middle East, North Africa and South Asia (MENASA) region to celebrate the spirit of entrepreneurship in Dubai a few days ago.

More than 160 speakers and over 1000 participants from around the world turned up, as the Abraaj's founder Arif Naqvi put it, to inspire creativity and collaboration, empower future talent and connect ideas with opportunities.

Many Pakistanis and other expatriates of Pakistan origin made their mark at the event that also provided them an opportunity to ponder where and why Pakistan lagged behind despite being one of the few big economies in the world.

As one participant put it, among many other factors, decisions makers and bureaucrats were major hurdles to start-up businesses and creation of an investment-friendly ecosystem. He recalled how a project for setting up of a semiconductor industry in Islamabad by some US entrepreneurs was thwarted at the last moment during Gen Ziaul Haq tenure due to a minor tariff dispute with the Wapda.

The project could have led to a Silicon Valley type boom in Pakistan where major investments continue to take place in buildings and bridges rather than ideas and entrepreneurship.

On a general note, this was reinforced by Naguib Sawiris, the CEO of Orascom Telecommunications, Egypt who thought that the governments everywhere were problem makers rather than trouble shooters which, he said, should be overturned by the people to expose the true potential of the private sector.

From Pakistan's perspective, an interesting observation came from Matt Harris, the co-founder of Village Ventures, USA, who said the one thing Pakistanis missed out was the sense of pride in what was happening around them and building around their strengths.

In his view, the country should also create hypes about thousands of positive aspects and start raking up internationally to improve its image and to counter the international media talking about doom and gloom.

This was seconded by Moonis Rahman, a Pakistani entrepreneur who said, access to capital was an issue but many venture capitalists were hesitant to come to Pakistan because of security concerns although there was three times more likelihood of being killed in a road accident in the US than become a target of terrorism in Pakistan.

He said that most of the IT software companies that were stationed next door the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad which returned to normal business a day after the suicide attack on the hotel last year. This could not have happened anywhere else in the world, not even in the US.

Most of the Pakistanis who had come from California and the UAE noted that lack of access to finance was a major handicap for start up ( also and small and medium enterprises) because no venture capital system was available in Pakistan.

Their major concern was that big banks were not ready to invest in new ideas and build financing networks and looked too much towards collaterals to extend financing.

The start up mentoring by the government was missing and shortages like electricity, water and gas were widespread, resulting in arbitrary shutdowns although such necessities were taken for granted in businesses everywhere. Another worry was political pick and choose approaches towards new businesses which flourished on political patronages rather than level playing field for all.

Imran Khan, cricketer-turned-philonthropist-turned politician, for whom a full session was dedicated because of enterprising success in building Shaukat Khanum Cancer Hospital, had a different view of his country's economic problems. He counted four challenges and said the nation had no future unless these issues were addressed immediately.

He said, the rule of law and meritocracy were the biggest issues, without which, the country could not have investments. He explained how the government became the biggest challenge in the establishment of his cancer hospital in Lahore and the new university with foreign faculty in Mianwali.

Second, the country lacked economic justice and the poor were subsidising the rich, who did not even pay taxes. The rich take money abroad and bring it back through innovative methods to earn rebates. He said that unless there was economic justice, there is going to be bloodshed over the next few years because common people could no more survive on their salaries and would not be paying for long the cost of government's inefficiencies.

Third, he said Pakistan will have to triple investment in public education sector.

The private English medium schools had emerged as money minting machines, while more than 50 per cent Pakistani below the age of 20 were slowly turning into illiterate bombs.

Fourth, he said Pakistan needs to get out of war on terror madness which was a disaster for its people. Referring towards the US audience, he said the US administration had put over $200 billion of its taxpayer money into war on terror while the US was going into worst recessions of its history.

In his view, investments in health and education could not take place unless Pakistan immediately got out of this war. “How can you have growth with war going on in every nook and corner”, he asked and lamented that the entire police force was not protecting the ordinary people but was there for to serve the rich.

Many overseas Pakistanis encouraged Abraaj Capital to accept the challenge and develop a network of 20 or so people for creating a venture capital fund in Pakistan to which they would contribute and create an ecosystem of venture capitals, mentors and angle investors. For them, the governments were not going to change and hence the private sector has to take the lead.

Could that happen, is to be seen. At least, Injaz, a volunteer organisation under the chairmanship of Sheikh Khalid bid Zayed al Nahyan, will soon be engaging with big businesses in Pakistan to start business model competitions in private schools, to start with.