US official offers to help Pakistani content feature on Netflix
California's governor expresses willingness to boost cultural and people-to-people ties between two countries
- Ambassador Masood underscores Pakistan's link with Silicon Valley.
- He says Islamabad's tech export to Washington reached $1.4bn.
- Envoy stressesboosting understanding, removing misconceptions.
A senior United States official has offered to help place Pakistani film content on the renowned over-the-top (OTT) streaming platform Netflix to encourage cultural and people-to-people ties between the two countries.
The offer, made by California's Lieutenant Governor Eleni Kounalakis — the US state where Netflix is based — came during her meeting with Pakistan's Ambassador to the US Masood Khan in Los Angeles on Thursday.
If materialised, the development will greatly boost the presence of Pakistani content on a global scale owing to Netflix's wide-scale audience — which according to Statista has as many as 269 million paid subscribers in the first quarter of 2024.
Stressing that the US had the best technological and labour practices, Governor Kounalakis offered her support in strengthening the bilateral cooperation between the State of California and Pakistan.
Meanwhile, the Pakistani envoy, while underscoring the connection between Silicon Valley — a term used to describe a certain part of California that is home to numerous high-tech companies and businesses — highlighted that Pakistani diaspora in the US, as well as American firms, were investing in Pakistan's technology sector.
He also pointed out the potential of expanding the scope of cooperation between the two countries in the renewable energy sector.
Lauding the governor's role in the establishment of the Punjab-California Sister State relationship, Khan accentuated the need to boost the cooperation under the initiative to the "next level".
Additionally, the envoy addressed the issue of agricultural development noting that Islamabad seeks Washington's expertise in agriculture modernisation, hybrid seed development and climate-smart crops.
He also noted the existing cooperation between Faisalabad's Agriculture University and its partner institution in the US.
Furthermore, the ambassador also visited Elon Musk's SpaceX headquarters along with the Starlink facility where he was briefed on the latter's operations and even toured its manufacturing facility.
Praising SpaceX's innovation and its technological headway, he said: "SpaceX rockets are a marvel of technology and innovation, a manifestation of the visionary leadership of [Elon] Musk".
Prior to this, Khan attended a luncheon hosted by World Affairs Council of Orange County where he said that Pakistan neither wanted to "choose" the US or China, but instead, he added, Islamabad can in fact act as an economic bridge between the two countries.
Accentuating the significance of Pak-US relations and the bilateral cooperation in the fields of education, agriculture, and manufacturing industry, the envoy called for the need to bolster understanding and remove misconceptions between the two countries.
He also stressed people-to-people exchanges with visits of students, academics, lawmakers, government officials, traders and investors and underscored that Pakistan's tech sports to the US amounting $1.4 billion in 2023.