Azeem A. Khan

The information technology and IT-enabled services (ITeS) is a key sector capable of stabilising Pakistan's economy, said Chairman of Pakistan Software Houses Association (P@SHA) Muhammad Zohaib Khan. Talking to WealthPK, he said during the annual LEAP Tech Conference in Saudi Arabia that Pakistan inked a number of agreements with leading Saudi businesses on the export of services and joint projects. The country’s leading information technology (IT) companies received a favourable response from the Saudi market, he said.

The P@SHA chairman said Saudi Arabia will soon have a significant IT and digitalization industry with chances for Pakistani youth.He advised Pakistani IT firms to expand their operations abroad to earn more for the country. Pakistani businesses have to be ready and equipped to investigate the Saudi market and take advantage of the potential it presents, he stressed.

He estimated that the video games segment's sales will also surpass $200 million in 2023 and expand at an average annual rate of 9.77% between 2023 and 2027. However, given the genuine potential and extendable human resources pool of Pakistan's gaming industry, this is insufficient, he said. Around 8,500 game developers are now employed in Pakistan across three key sub-sectors: gaming goods, middleware, and gaming services.

Zohaib emphasised that if Pakistan invested in human resource and skill development for the aspiring game developers, it could easily add 3,000 gaming developers to the human resource pool each year.In this way, Pakistan can comfortably attain 30 percent year-on-year growth in the gaming industry's foreign remittances, he added.The Pakistan Software Houses Association represents over 1,000 member companies for IT and ITeS. He said the essential component of IT exports was skilled human talent, which was already present in the country.

Zohaib emphasised the need for economic policy continuity, institutional consistency within the government, and incentives for the IT sector to boost the export of software and IT-enabled services.“If government agencies like the Security Exchange Commission of Pakistan, Federal Bureau of Revenue (FBR) and the State Bank of Pakistan make doing business in the country easier, the IT exports may reach $10 billion in the next five years,” he estimated. The P@SHA chief suggested that in order to allow technology businesses to freely pay and receive money, the government should remove any barrier to let IT exports grow at a fast rate.  Zohaib also urged the government to give tax holidays and 5% cash reward for IT and ITeS exporters showing better performance.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan-WealthPk