Pakistan could become IT leader: US diplomat

[Neo]

Pakistan could become IT leader: US diplomat ​

LAHORE (March 06 2008): The principal officer, United States Consulate, Bryan D Hunt, has said Pakistan has the potential to become one of the leaders in Information Technology, but it would have to take some strategic decisions regarding the implementation of property rights laws.

Hunt's comments came at the closing ceremony of a three-day LCCI IT Fair-2008 on Wednesday. Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) President Mohammad Ali Mian, Senior Vice-President Mian Muzaffar Ali, Vice-President Shafqat Saeed Piracha, former LCCI vice-president and the chairman, Standing Committee on Event Management and Achievement Awards, Sheikh Mohammad Arshad, and the chairman, Standing Committee on Information Technology, Ibrahim Qureshi, also spoke on the occasion.

He praised the LCCI for organising the event, saying the IT sector was one of the most promising sectors. He said several Pak companies were receiving tremendous contracts from the US and once the laws pertaining to property rights were enforced properly the situation would get a boost. The LCCI chief said the Lahore Chamber was trying to promote the IT sector and the IT Fair-2008 was a step in that direction.

He said the LCCI through the IT fair has made an attempt to provide an opportunity to the local companies to interact with world renowned IT companies, including Intel and Microsoft. Mohammad Ali Mian said Pakistan has immense potential in the IT sector outsourcing services and it is eyeing to increase the size of the IT sector.

He said that with every global IT company in the world having presence in Pakistan, and with revenues growing by 30-40 percent year on year, the IT industry is the most exciting and dynamic sector in the country today.

He said an industry characterised by 75,000 professionals, major ongoing IT projects within the government and the private sector to the tune of hundreds of millions of US dollars, and world-class software products and services companies bears testimony to the vibrancy of the IT and IT-enabled services sector in Pakistan.

The convergence of communications, computing, and entertainment has resulted in the blurring of boundaries between disciplines and IT companies now come in all shapes and sizes. IT has indeed been taken out of the closet and has been mainstreamed into every aspect of industrial and economic activity within the country, he added.

The LCCI chief said the growth of the IT sector is evident from the fact that Pakistan in term of Internet-users population in Asia is at 10th place with an amazing rate of growth. "Even with this high pace of growth we still believe that a lot of work should be done to give awareness to people especially the business community.

He said with more than 1,000 IT companies registered in the country, IT exports grew by an average of 50 percent in each of the last four years. We still believe that efforts should have been made to facilitate the country's IT industry through its programs in Human Capital, Office Space, Marketing, Company Capability Development, Telecom Bandwidth, Industry Finance, Public Policy, Strategy & Research, and Facilitation.

The LCCI IT Fair-2008 was organised by the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry in collaboration with big Information Technology names, including Intel Pakistan, Microsoft Pakistan and Raffles (Pvt) Limited.

The exhibitors include hardware companies, networking solutions, Internet infrastructure and services, computer peripherals, software houses, computer telephony, data equipment and services and customised software/hardware solution providers.

Business Recorder [Pakistan's First Financial Daily]

 

[Neo]

Pakistan Is Participating in CeBit Hannover 2008 to Market Its IT Potential​

Thursday March 6, 2008

HANNOVER, GERMANY--(MARKET WIRE)--Mar 6, 2008 -- As part of its mission to market the Pakistani IT companies' potential in international market, Pakistan is participating in the CeBit Hannover 2008 fair being held in Germany.

The Pakistan Software Export Board (PSEB) has established a customized country pavilion for the participating member companies that have been jointly selected by Pakistan Software House Association (PASHA) and PSEB. Attendance in international trade fairs and exhibitions by Pakistani companies is an integral part of the Government of Pakistan's policy. It provides a chance to interact with world renowned IT companies and executives in order to showcase their IT services potential, said a PSEB spokesman.

He expressed hope that the delegation would generate valuable business leads with a high probability of transforming into successful business ventures with participating companies. He informed that amongst participating companies, Progressive Systems has expertise in web portal, web applications, enterprise mobile applications development and business intelligence & data warehousing. GoodCore Software is providing services for development of business applications, Xorlogics Inc. specializes in database applications and mobile applications, while Server4Sale is a known icon in the area of website hosting services with integration of related applications.

Pakistan has immense potential in IT sector outsourcing services and its participation in the upcoming CeBit fair will help increase interaction between the Pakistani companies and international IT firms. With an IT Industry worth more than US$2.8 billion, including annual IT exports exceeding US$1.4 billion, Pakistan is eyeing to increase the size of its IT sector to over US$11 billion by 2011. "Software export activities by Pakistani companies are not only enhancing the country's image abroad but are also having a positive impact on the IT export related earnings of the country, added the PSEB spokesman.

One of the main factors behind the rapid growth in Pakistan's IT sector is the Pakistan Government's policy to allow foreign investors 100% ownership of equity and 100% repatriation of profits, as well as tax exemption for IT companies until 2016.

About PSEB

PSEB is a Government agency mandated to promote Pakistan's IT Industry including software, services, hardware and call centers locally and globally. PSEB has been facilitating the IT industry through its programs in Human Capital, Office Space, Marketing, Company Capability Development, Telecom Bandwidth, Industry Finance, Public Policy, Strategy & Research, and Facilitation.

Pakistan Is Participating in CeBit Hannover 2008 to Market Its IT Potential: Financial News - Yahoo! Finance

 

[khanz]

this is nice news but I think we need to make our people more literate first before we can even think about this .

 

[Neo]

this is nice news but I think we need to make our people more literate first before we can even think about this .

Agree on the illiteracy issue but stil we have enough skilled and educated labor to become a hub. According to a recent report I posted here last year there are approximately 5 million high educated english speaking professionals in Pakistan qualified to provide back office support to multinationals. The number of IT peofessionals is still less than 100.000 but its growing fast enough to revolutionalise the sector.

Its a matter of time before major IT companies start looking into our potential..

 

[niaz]

I sincerely hope that Pakistan becomes a power in the IT field. However, India is so far ahead that we will have a tough time even getting near that level. Presently if you have a technical problem with Microsoft products and ask for online help. Chances are that you will be direct to somebody in India, as recently happend with me.

Let us have our eyes on achievable targets; say about 5% share in the IT market. Even if we achieve this within next 5 years, we would be earning about $5-billion !! from IT exports each year.
There is a saying in the north of England " softly softly catcha monkey". Let us follow this axiom.

 

[Flintlock]

this is nice news but I think we need to make our people more literate first before we can even think about this .

I think if Pakistan encourages people to join the IT field, it will have a trickle-down effect and the middle classes will begin to grow.

Atleast that's what is happening in India. People in villages hear about others' success stories, especially from the media, and decide to educate their kids.
There was an article in India Today some time back about this.

Also, Pakistan has a very talented population. I'm sure they will do very well, given the right conditions.

 

[salman nedian]

Saturday, January 05, 2008
Pakistan among top countries for offshore outsourcing: Gartner
ISLAMABAD: As a result of the policy initiatives taken by the government to position the country as an offshore destination of choice, Pakistan has become a major player in the global Information Technology (IT) industry.

Gartner, the world’s leading information technology research and advisory company has placed Pakistan amongst the top countries of the world in terms of suitability for offshore outsourcing. Pakistan has been recognized by the global community as ‘Market Leaders and Challengers’ and has been placed in the First Category countries in 2007. Previously, in 2006 Pakistan was placed in the Third Category countries.

Gartner, in its recent report ‘Analysis of Pakistan as an Offshore Service Location’ said the major factor behind the progressing status of Pakistan is the lower salaries and better infrastructure advantages than other offshore destinations. “The salaries of IT professionals in Pakistan are approximately 30% lower than those in India, while telecommunication costs are also lower as compared to any other offshore locations, which make Pakistan an attractive outsourcing destination.”

Based on a total of ten criterion, including language, government support, labour pool, infrastructure, education system, cost, political and economic environment, cultural compatibility, global and legal maturity, data and intellectual property security and privacy, Gartner rated Pakistan as ‘very good’ in cost, ‘good’ in language and ‘fair’ in most of the areas despite the prevailing political environment.

According to Gartner research report, government of Pakistan has devised a comprehensive national IT policy, designed to encourage the private sector. In order to drive development, Pakistan Software Export Board (PSEB) plans to construct new IT parks in major cities while 750,000 square feet of space in PSEB-designated parks has already been leased to IT companies.

“The government is doing a great job of initiating activities in positioning Pakistan as an offshore location, however, it needs to take concrete steps to improve its brand image as an offshore destination,” the report adds.

It may be mentioned here that a number of Pakistani IT companies have developed world class software in areas such as car leasing, enterprise application integration, mortgage lien processing, stock market order management, mobile convergence, data and web content management for some of the top most corporations of the world. staff report

 

[Energon]

If you closely look at the Indian model, other than the high number of skilled labor, the thing that truly made the difference was the availability of sophisticated fiber optic cables from the post Y2K bubble burst which was picked up at throw away prices from the US surplus by Indian companies in the early 00s.

The skilled labor has always been around, its just that they could never really be productive in India until the massive FO network was put together to supply vast back office operations and real time tech support facilities. Also, because the US manufacturers were in such bad shape after the dot-com bubble burst that they were more than eager to part with tech transfers which aggressive companies like Reliance bought, allowing them to reverse engineer the product and keep increasing their grids... and they will eventually put the nationalized VSNL system out of business. Tom Friedman has explained all of this very well in his book "The World is Flat."

 

[Shoaib_Sham]

Pakistan certainly has alot of potential to grow in IT sector. Loads and loads of factors play a major role in bringing IT revolution. Offshoring is just a part of the IT revolution.
Pakistani IT guys are generally very talented, you can find Pakistanis in every IT MNC of the world and the best thing is that most of them are just home grown (studied from our universities like FAST/LUMS/NUST/GIKI). Comparing ourselves with India is not a smart thing, we just need to pick a leaf from India's IT revolution Book. We certainly have a Loads of potential. At times being a Pakistani, IT guys have to proof something a bit more when working outside Pakistan.Its a bit unfortunate but we have to face the fact.
Stable economical/political conditions are of paramount importance for Offshore business Setups.What happened in the later half of the year 2007, have resulted in some companies either opting out of Pakistan for more safer and secure regions or cancelling their plans of expansion ( considering the potential here) in Pakistan. I my self worked for one such company.

Secondly I dont agree with the Gartners Report on the IT salaries 30% lesser in Pakistan than in India. Its like 1- (.65 to .75) India - Pakistan.

 

[Bushroda]

I don't think it is fair for Pakistan to compare itself with India or "attempting to catch up" with India in IT.

First of all IT is a fairly new discipline & there is still tremendous scope. Up until now, not even 5% of the world's total IT requirements have been fulfilled. So, the pie is big enough for everyone to share. Pakistan shouldn't be thinking of relative to India. It may be possible that it can even surpass India.

Second reason being that, what works for India might not work for Pakistan or somebody else similarly like not everybody can copy China's manufacturing model. One benefit that India had was that it was present during the Y2K problem was being looked at. Indian companies took the oppurtunity of whatever work came their way. Those were desperate times and the western companies were willing to outsource the work to anyone anywhere in the world. Although most of the work was menial but it did provide a window to the western companies to look into the talent available in India which I think was one of biggest factor that kickstarted outsourcing phenomena to India. Those times are over & those who missed the bus now have to do it the hard way.

Third & most important, setting up array of engineering institutes during 60s that kept producing loads of engineers even though most of them left overseas for brighter future. But, it did help in establishing an engineering education infrastructure in India. So when the oppurtunity arrived India was in a position to provide enough skilled labour needed.

Fourth, Indian engineers that left for US during 60s & 70s returned to India after retiring & along with them they brought their valuable contacts in western companies. This was helpful in establishing a relationship between Indian IT companies & their western counterparts.

Pakistan needs to develop its own model for IT development. Hiring IT consultants in western can be useful in getting business but eventual success depends on how robust the working system is. How quickly does it allow in the expansion. A 200 seater s/w development lab can be opened anywhere in the world, even in Sudan. But how quickly can Pakistan allow the expansion of that 200 seater lab into 10000 seater campus? Success would depend upon these factors.

 

[Contrarian]

the thing that truly made the difference was the availability of sophisticated fiber optic cables from the post Y2K bubble burst which was picked up at throw away prices from the US surplus by Indian companies in the early 00s.

I didnt know that!

 

[Vinod2070]

I think Pakistan is at a stage where India was about 15 years back. So the potential is there for sure.

For IT sector to develop, it requires sustained good relations with US as that is the biggest market and one most open to outsourcing.

 

[Energon]

I think Pakistan is at a stage where India was about 15 years back. So the potential is there for sure.

For IT sector to develop, it requires sustained good relations with US as that is the biggest market and one most open to outsourcing.

Again, I don't think it's really possible to equate one model to the other given the radical occurrences through the various timescales. As opposed to what happened through the 90s, the US economy is currently reeling and headed towards a recession. There is also a massive credit crunch which means that it is unlikely that American companies will invest in setting up new hubs in untested waters. It takes a large amount of capital to set up BPOs initially. The only reason this was possible for India is because of their ability to buy FO cables at throw away prices and set up massive networks.

The Pakistani model is going to have to rely on seeking business from other sources. From what I understand the Pakistani community is the UK is sizable and possibly very influential. Perhaps they can garner favor of the British government as the NRIs did with that of the US'
Also, they are going to have to make the initial investments themselves; or at least find an alternate source of funding since the credit dry American economy is unlikely to provide any to their MNCs. Perhaps loans and technical assistance can be sought from the Middle East and China for this venture.

Either way, the primary point is that the Pakistani model will be radically different from the Indian one and it's best to analyze/hypothesize on both of them independently taking into account their unique positions.

 

[Vinod2070]

I agree as far as the India model not being directly applicable is concerned.

But the main issue here more than investments will be finding the markets. The UK as a market is not as large and not as open. Again a major chunk of that smaller market is already taken and you will have to fight the established players to take away their business which is always tough. They can play your game better than you and have deeper pockets.

Again I respectfully disagree about the ability of the Pakistani community to accomplish what you mentioned. Even the NRI community in the USA (far more influential) can't do that if the product they are selling is not good. And it was driven not by NRIs but by US businesses trying to save costs and get better quality.

Anyway it is still early days. Lets wait and watch. It could well be an interesting story.

 

[indiapakistanfriendship]

Agree on the illiteracy issue but stil we have enough skilled and educated labor to become a hub. According to a recent report I posted here last year there are approximately 5 million high educated english speaking professionals in Pakistan qualified to provide back office support to multinationals. The number of IT peofessionals is still less than 100.000 but its growing fast enough to revolutionalise the sector.

Its a matter of time before major IT companies start looking into our potential..

Neo when you talk about Offshoring are you referring to business process outsourcing such as voice based services and financial data processing or are you referring to outsourcing of IT infrastructure, design and software development as both are distinctly different. For the former training existing graduates and upgrading their skills shall be enough but for the latter the scenario is not so simple. South India is the hub of IT based infrastucture, design and development services, during the IT revolution we were able scale up something that was essential ie our educational infrastructure. For two decades now we have scaled up engineering institutes like anything. Take Tamilnadu alone, here within last two decades we have established more then 250 private engineering institutions giving an cobined output of more than 60000 engineers annualy , the same holds true for Andhra and Karnataka. For It services copporates like Infy, TCS, CTS their raw materials are Human resources and they need them in large quantity, unless you are able to scale up your technical educational facilities to the scale I had mentioned it will be very difficult to attract IT development investment as it requires huge engineering pool .

Cheers