TRUE to his reputation as a doer and achiever, Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunications Dr Umar Saif has launched a realistic plan to increase the IT exports to $18 billion in the next five years. Speaking at the launching ceremony of ‘Unlocking Pakistan’s IT Potential” on Thursday, he said the export strategy aims at increasing IT exports to $10 billion in the next three years.
It is encouraging to note that the strategy is backed by a workable action plan to achieve the ambitious target for IT exports. At present, IT exports stand at $2.6 billion and the plan envisages addition of a skilled work force of two hundred thousand, which would help boost exports to $5 billion. Similarly, allowing IT companies to keep dollars (dollar retention facility) will increase exports by one billion dollars, while the establishment of the Pakistan Startup Fund will increase the total volume of IT exports by another $1 billion to help it meet the target of $10 billion. The Minister pointed out that there was spectrum of 300MHz available that could be offered to improve network issues. Launching of 5G was given a timeframe of 10 months out of which two months had passed and they were making efforts to provide an enabling environment for launching 5G. A latest study has confirmed that there is a substantial opportunity for Pakistan to grow its IT and IT-enabled services (ITeS) export revenues to $10-$18 billion by 2028 and would make Pakistan a global IT hub, with a commensurate increase in the domestic industry to over $6bn per annum. An increase of activity, capacity and capability of the IT/ITeS industry will have spin-off benefits for associated industries and the economy at large — e-commerce, financial services or the provision of public services (e-government). The plan is, no doubt, ambitious with potential to help overcome economic and financial challenges of the country but its implementation requires creation of an enabling atmosphere which is presently not conducive to IT growth as many companies are moving out due to heavy taxation, lack of required infrastructure and frequent shut downs of services due to political instability and law and order issues. These issues must be resolved on a priority basis in close coordination with the SIFC.
