Australia Awards South and West Asia

In 2017, Fatima Anila from Pakistan received the opportunity to participate in an Australia Awards Short Course on Business Incubation Management, delivered by the University of Queensland. Before travelling to Australia for the core learning component of the course, Fatima was working as an entrepreneur, running her own IT business for eight years. However, the Short Course gave her the chance to take her abilities to the next level.

“As an international student at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, I had a great learning opportunity from peers who travelled with me from Pakistan, and from my professors and teachers. The whole course provided me with an insight into Australia’s top-of-the-line business models, where the government, businesses and other funding institutions are working together to build an ecosystem that jointly works to achieve new heights of innovative start-ups,” says Fatima.

Fatima is now working as the General Manager IT at Frontier Works Organization (FWO), where she has been able to apply the concepts of corporate entrepreneurship and innovation that she learnt in her Short Course. She prepared the framework for an Innovation and Growth Roadmap, scaling up the automatic toll collection and intelligence transportation system from one motorway project to cover all Pakistan motorways, and converting 30 personnel departments within FWO to an astounding 1200-plus departments. She also digitalised all Pakistan motorway operations on a project worth PKR500 million in less than a year. Fatima attributes her success in providing outstanding IT solutions in her projects to the lessons she gained from the Australia Awards Short Course.

Fatima (third from left) receiving an award at the 2023 Asian Tech Excellence Awards.

Fatima aspires to enable a conducive environment for the youth of Pakistan and to contribute significantly to innovation and entrepreneurship in sustainable digital governance powered by green digital infrastructure for citizen services delivery, as well as increased productivity in different sectors.

Seven years on from her Short Course, Fatima remains well-connected with her former professors in Australia, from whom she continues to seek guidance and support for her work when needed. She also attends regular webinars related to the IT sector and maintains a one-on-one mentor–mentee relationship with a climate change educationist from the University of Queensland. Aside from these professional benefits, she also has fond personal memories of her time in Australia.

“In the initial days, I felt homesick, but then the fresh air from the Brisbane River and the University of Queensland lake felt like family,” Fatima recalls. “The Wednesday farmers’ market at the end of Queen Street Mall, where I was staying, and the Noosa Chocolate Factory became my go-to places every week. The time I spent in Brisbane during the Short Course became unforgettable. If ever I get a chance to visit Australia again, I would love to spend time in Brisbane to relive my memories.”