Domino effect of the GSP Plus

Oracle Pakistan MD says textile not the only sector to benefit.

KARACHI:

The European Union granting the country Generalised Scheme of Preferences (GSP) Plus scheme did not just augur well for the textile industry but also left a favourable impact on the business of Oracle Corporation in Pakistan, according to the company’s managing director. 

Speaking to The Express Tribune, Oracle Corporation’s county head said the GSP Plus status along with the successful spectrum auction that landed 3G services in Pakistan are going to add to the country’s economic growth.



Oracle Pakistan provides IT solutions to over 1,100 clients in the country out of which 50 of them are textile companies. Citing one of the Oracle’s recent deals with Nishat Chunian, the fourth largest textile company in Pakistan, he said more firms may opt for or improve IT solutions as their profits grow due to the favourable impact of the GSP Plus in the 28-nation EU market.

“The more these two developments help increase companies’ profitability, the more small and big businesses will opt for different Information Technology (IT) solutions,” said Ahsen Javed, responsible for overseeing Pakistan as well as Oracle’s South Asia Growth Economies (SAGE) West region covering Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka.

Textile is one of our focused sectors and we are bullish about it, Javed added.

3G licences and IT solution providers

Another indication of better economic growth is the country’s recent move towards availing 3G services.

The transformation of Pakistan has opened new doors of opportunity. It is not just good for the telecom sector, which is one of the major client base for Oracle, Javed said, but also for other sectors where IT systems play an important role like banks, airlines, hospitals among others.

“I am glad 3G services are finally here as it will have a profound impact on economic growth.”

Asked to identify a sector which would report growth, Javed said it would be difficult to pinpoint.

“However, if manufacturing somehow manages to grow faster, it will help Pakistan a lot owing to the size of large scale manufacturing in the country,” he added, while speaking on the relationship of economic growth and the penetration of IT solution providers.

He said there is room for improvement in every sector but a lot depends on how Pakistan tackles its energy crisis, which is one of the biggest impediments in growth and has a direct bearing on the business of IT solution providers.

Cloud computing the future

According to Javed, irrespective of developed or developing countries, customer challenges are similar and the companies are looking for cost effective and simple IT solutions because the current costs are high and difficult to sustain. This is why companies like Oracle are now focusing on innovative and simple solutions for their customers.

“Cloud computing is going to help the customers as it simplifies solutions and reduces cost of operations,” he said. “The future lies in cloud computing and therefore, with time more and more companies will shift to it.”

Cloud computing is a model for delivering IT services in which resources are retrieved from the internet through web-based tools and applications, rather than a direct connection to a server. This reduces overall costs of operations.

Javed said that he is not aware of the precise rate but the growth of cloud computing services in Pakistan, like many other countries, is definitely in double digits.

“Since caution in terms of cost is observed everywhere, our strategy is to reduce the overall costs and provide simple but modern IT solutions,” he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 14^th, 2014.

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