Strategy unveiled to take IT exports to $10b

ISLAMABAD:

Caretaker Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunication Dr Umar Saif on Thursday unveiled Pakistan’s first-ever IT and IT-enabled services (ITeS) export strategy in a bid to ramp up IT exports to $10 billion over the next three years.

Speaking as a chief guest at the launching ceremony, Saif said that the Pakistan Software Export Board (PSEB), working under the Ministry of IT, in collaboration with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and other international partners, including the faculty of the University of Oxford, developed the strategy, which was closely aligned with Pakistan’s vision.

Read: IT exports increase by 16% in October

Explaining the strategy, the minister said that official figures showed that IT exports were $2.6 billion, but “we will add another 200,000 skilled people to the existing IT workforce that will push exports to $5 billion”. Similarly, allowing IT companies to keep a higher amount of dollar proceeds will raise exports by $1 billion while setting up the Pakistan Startup Fund will increase IT exports by another $1 billion.

The minister said that there was a substantial opportunity for Pakistan to grow its IT/ ITeS export revenue to $10-18 billion by 2028 and it would target to make Pakistan a global IT hub, with a commensurate jump in the domestic industry to over $6 billion per annum.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 24^th, 2023.

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