Visa problems hampers software exports | Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF)

Pakistan Press Foundation

Visa problems hampers software exports

KARACHI- The business of Pakistan software industry has been facing crisis as software exporters are not getting visas from Dubai, Singapore and the USA to obtain further orders owing to ongoing war against Afghanistan by the US and its allies.

Pakistan software exports seem to have a substantial fall. If this situation persists, it is likely that software industry might get a halt causing a large number of lay-offs.

These views were expressed by Syed Hamza Matin, President, Pakistan Software Houses Association (PASHA). He said that due to the current situation, over 500 software developers and engineers have been laid off by the local software firms as they are not getting fresh orders from abroad.

He said that despite our efforts, the software exporters have not been successful in getting visas issued from these countries mainly because of war-like situation. He said that government should come forward and award local projects to the local software exporters so that they can run their businesses.

He said that a software exhibition/fair is going to be held in the USA on November 12, adding that the participation from Pakistan software engineers should have been made in large numbers but due to restriction in issuing visas, the majority of software companies cannot attend the show.

He demanded of the government to ensure that Pakistani software exporters are given visas by the respective embassies so that they can get more orders from abroad.

“At present the current situation in the software industry is very depressing and we are very much worried how the industry behave in the coming months,” he said. It may be mentioned here that according to Federal Minister for Science and Technology, Dr. Ata-ur-Rehman, Pakistan’s software exports were about 26 million US dollars in 2000-2001. But keeping in view the current situation, Pakistan’s software exports might depict a substantial fall during the year 2001-2002.

Source: Business Recorder
Date:11/12/2001