By Muhammad Asad Tahir Bhawana

ISLAMABAD, July 22: Pakistan’s Information Technology industry is thriving mainly owing to improved security situation, quickly growing mobile connectivity and critical legal changes and deregulation along with provision of incentives in form of supportive policies of the government.

The country, with its huge number of young labour force adopting technology rapidly, can become a tech hub within a few years. A large number of multinational companies, such as Samsung and Nokia, have established their manufacturing plants in Pakistan, which boosted the use of technologies, as the number of broadband users in Pakistan has increased to 104 million.

According to a report of the Ministry of Information Technology from January to March 2002, 10 million broadband subscribers have been added, and the ministry is expected to add around 20 million more within 14 months. Internet usage in education, health, and different sectors has also witnessed an increase. Within the past few years, the e-commerce landscape of Pakistan has also seen tremendous growth. With this increase in usage and subscribers, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) is taking several steps to ensure quality of service.

Local mobile handsets manufacturing plants manufactured 3.94 million mobile phones against 0.36 million commercially imported ones this February, according to the PTA. The locally manufactured/assembled mobile phones in 2021 were 24.66 million as compared to 13.05 million in 2020, indicating an 88% increase. Pakistan is among the largest IT-enabled services exporters, with more than 40% software development. Pakistan is continuously establishing high-tech industries and expanding its cyber security system integration.

The biggest reason for all this happening is that Pakistan is home to 144 universities, with some top-ranked like GIKI, FAST, and NUST offering engineering degrees that have so far produced 300,000 IT professionals with expertise in artificial intelligence/machine learning and other IT specialties.

Similarly, the other fields of technological advancement are also on the rise, for instance, software development, data management, and freelancing. Muhammad Baseer, Associate Data Engineer at Teradata, told WealthPK that companies such as Teradata are providing great opportunities to young professionals to learn advanced skills in the field of IT.

“Companies like Teradata must be facilitated by the government of Pakistan to establish business in the country, which will precisely improve the productivity of the local engineers and help the country become a tech hub,” he said.

Moreover, China can prove a major transformer of technological advancement in Pakistan.

Pakistan's Ambassador to China Moinul Haque during a conference on Pakistan-China cooperation in the IT sector said, "We are promoting the establishment of Chinese industries, manufacturing units in special economic and technology zones, and facilitating their exports also beyond Pakistan to the neighbouring regions."

So, it is high time for Pakistan to take all these opportunities in its favour to make the country a tech manufacturing hub, which will ultimately minimize its dependence on foreign loans, and also help it come out of economic difficulties.

Credits: INP-WealthPk