Share this story!            

Export target for IT services to be attained

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has said the $10 billion export target for IT and telecom services will be achieved by developing adequate human capital, improved fiscal regime, necessary infrastructure and an enabling environment for ICT companies.

The IT industry, which was virtually non-existent seven years ago, has grown to be worth $2 billion of which $1 billion is export related.

The prime minister was presiding over a meeting to review the profile and performance of the country’s IT industry.

He said information and communication technology was the wave of the future and Pakistan was well positioned to become a major global player. He said the sector was open to local and foreign companies.

He approved, in principle, the setting up of a Venture Capital Fund in the private sector. The IT ministry should make efforts to attract venture capital in the IT sector and reputed international companies be approached for this purpose, he said.

Mr Aziz said allout efforts were needed to provide IT skills to the youth as Pakistan would need 230,000 trained IT personnel by 2010. Now the sector employed 90,000 professionals.

The prime minister said the IT industry was growing at the rate 50 percent per year which was truly phenomenal and one of the fastest in the world. He said there was a need to promote the vast potential of software export and also to promote domestic software houses, which was huge source of job creation.

He said services and expertise of the Pakistani community living abroad should be leveraged to further expedite the growth of IT in the country. He praised the excellent work done by the ministry to promote IT industry in the country.

Minister for Information Technology Awais Ahmed Leghari informed the meeting that the IT ministry had set up a special fund to provide and enhance IT skills of the youth. He said the ministry had an excellent internship programme under which IT companies were training the youth, expenditure for which was being borne by the ministry.

All IT-related services had also been outsourced, he said.

The managing director of the Pakistan Software Export Board, Yousaf Hussain, in his presentation informed the meeting that the IT sector comprised over 950 companies of which 125 were either ISO certified or CMMI appraised. He said bandwidth consumption in Pakistan had increased from 800 MB in 2003 to 2.5 GB at present. staff report

Home | Business

Share this story!