ISLAMABAD – Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar has approved and appreciated a plan for the Ministry of IT and Telecom, including the launch of PayPal and Stripe in Pakistan.
IT Minister Dr Umar Saif shared the development on social media platform X, formerly Twitter, after he presented the plan in a meeting with the prime minister in Islamabad.
The plan includes enhancing IT exports by institutionalising dollar retention accounts, IT corporate debit cards to enable easy flow of money in and out of retention accounts, streamlining tax issues and training 200,000 IT professionals to add $5 Billion to IT exporters.
“Bring PayPal and Stripe to Pakistan and establish co-working spaces for 500,000 freelancers to increase their potential to additional $3 Biliion per year,” read Saif’s social media post.
The plan also includes the launch Starlink in Pakistan to improve connectivity throughout the country.
The ministry has also planned to launch government-backed Pakistan Venture Capital Fund to attract top-tier international VCs to Pakistan. It aims at enabling $1 billion VC investment in startups.
The ministry wants to enable active spectrum sharing, forward-looking taxation policies, regulations and incentives for the telecom industry to prepare for the upcoming 5G auction within 10 months.
The Prime Minister has approved and appreciated our plan for the Ministry of IT and Telecom:
1. Enhance IT exports by institutionalising dollar retention accounts, IT corporate debit cards to enable easy flow of money in and out of retention accounts, streamlining tax issues and… pic.twitter.com/QAQPT4ObZ8
— Umar Saif (@umarsaif) September 6, 2023
The plan includes incentives for local manufacturing and export of smart phones in Pakistan, as well as smartphone financing platform (so that people can easily get phones on monthly instalments) to enhance local demand.
