KARACHI:
Pakistan is becoming desperate to increase its GDP. An economy that was built purely on leveraging the global power shifts in its first three decades and in the later four decades transformed into a war economy. The country’s economic ship, nevertheless, has now become rudderless, as it never learned how to make money in a unipolar world, and during peace around in its neighborhood.
The biggest miss on Pakistan’s journey to success is the IT boom. To understand the magnitude of the loss, consider this. In 2007, the list of the world’s top ten companies included only one IT company, Microsoft. The rest of the nine companies were traditional businesses like oil and utility sectors. When that list was revised in 2017, all the top ten companies belonged to the IT sector.
India embraced IT from the time of the advent of personal computers. If Saudi Arabia makes around $200 billion from its oil exports, India makes the same from its IT exports. Pakistan had a similar edge over the rest of the developing world just like India. It had technical schools with English as an official language in an English-dominated Western world. But that potential went untapped for the reasons cited above.
We cannot undo the past but certainly can make amends going forward. The IT is the fast-track ticket to progress and the rewards are enormous. The world’s software needs are just going to grow further. Although it is late but not too late to adopt this course. Pakistan can still become competitive in price and services. The kind of money IT brings in has no comparison with the traditional agrarian or industrial economy.
No matter how potent an idea may be or how lucrative it might sound, the resolve and intent behind it should be more solid. No half measures- a full and aggressive focus is required. If this course is not adopted, the country, its finances and a huge population are going nowhere. There could sharp resource battles ensue. Enough of political bickering and adventurism, if not so, social unrest might turn nasty and jeopardise the very foundations of the country.
Bahadar Ali Khan
Canada
Published in The Express Tribune, April 14th, 2024.
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