By Aitizaz Hassan

ISLAMABAD, Aug 12 (INP-WealthPK): Pakistan is currently spending around $100 million on cloud computing services due to absence of local cloud center, according to a study of Special Technology Zones Authority (STZA).

Saqib Ahmed, Managing Director of System Analysis Program Development (SAP), largest information technology (IT) solutions provider, said while talking to WealthPK that Pakistan should focus on local software development, and to achieve that objective, the country must support international companies by maintaining consistency in policies.

Saqib Ahmed said there was a strong voice across the world regarding laws that regulated cloud services. Cloud services are playing a predominant role in the modern world, and businesses acquire these services instead of maintaining their own data centers, and incorporate them with their IT operations.

“The excellent human resource of Pakistan usually moves out of the country either to seek jobs or work as self-employed,” Saqib said.

Cloud computing is a model of software operating system to digitalize and centralize the information at massive level in absolutely sustainable way. It secures and digitalizes networks, servers, storage, applications, and services that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction.

“Demand is rising for cloud service providers and data center operators to apply laws of the country placing its data with them instead of the laws of the host country, to ensure that any difficult situation does not affect their data,” Saqib said.

The SAP MD said that like several countries in the world, relevant authorities in Pakistan keep a watch on employees and top management of the companies maintaining data of public and private sector entities. Pakistan has also requested that the SAP shift data of Pakistani companies from the Gulf region to China.

“At present, more than 90% of public and private sector companies in the country use SAP solutions to streamline their operations. The SAP has more than 230 million cloud users and more than 100 IT solutions covering all business functions,” he said.

Saqib Ahmed said that a cloud-based solution protects organizations in financial terms, reduces human errors and allows better streamlining and coordination, compared with non-cloud-based solutions.

Regarding development of IT-based solutions, the SAP MD said the government must focus on local software development and be pro-active to achieve this objective.

“Consistency is needed in policies regarding taxation and other facilitations as the IT sector has seen tax imposition and its waivers again and again. Such steps confuse international players,” Saqib said.

He added that the second important step needed to be taken by the government and the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) is introduction of an easy method to make payments to vendors living abroad and repatriation of profits.

The SAP is a German multinational software corporation that develops enterprise software to manage business operations and customer relations.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan-WealthPk