Foreign IT firms to employ local manpower
ISLAMABAD – Minister for Information Technology Awais Ahmad Khan Leghari on April 26 urged the foreign companies seeking access to Pakistan’s telecom and IT markets to enter into partnership with local players and software houses for mutual benefit.
“Such relationship will help raise the level of competence and quality of local products to penetrate international markets,” he said. “We do not merely want vendors, but strategic partners who can participate in the growth of telecom and IT sectors in a way that translates into some job opportunities for our young professionals,” the minister said.
He was speaking in a meeting with a six-member delegation of Chinese telecom giant ZTE, led by its president and chief executive Yen Yi Min at his office. Mr. Leghari said companies like the ZTE needed to realize that while they reaped profits through their operations in Pakistan, they also owed to this country in terms of contributing to research and development, quality of human resource and growth of employment opportunities.
The IT ministry plans to execute several projects in near future, but these will be given to those foreign companies which outsource a portion of their work to local software development houses, and also employ a decent percentage of local manpower, he said.
The minister said the ZTE had already entered into partnership with the PTCL to execute key projects and it was time that the company broadened its research and development activities in Pakistan and employed more local young professionals.
He also urged the company to give local software development houses a portion of its software work during the execution of the PTCL’s billing and customer care project which the company had bid for.
Mr Leghari observed that Pakistan had a combined (cellular plus fixed line) tele-density of less then 5 per cent. However, telecom deregulation and mobile cellular sector policies announced recently had provided a balanced and investment- friendly framework for introduction of competition and participation of private sector operations in developing telecom sector in the country.
Estimates suggested that an investment of $4-5 billion was expected over the next 3-4 years in the IT and telecom sectors to address the supply situation, the minister said.
The situation, he added, offered good opportunities to companies like the ZTE to participate in the development of telecom sector and enhance its capabilities in local manufacturing of telecom equipment, development of specialized hardware and embedded software for internet and telecom applications and also undertake collaborative research in technologies like encryption, wireless communication and secure networks.
The ZTE chief executive, Yen Yi Min, appreciating the minister’s concern, said his company had already planned to expand its operations in Pakistan with particular focus on expansion of its research and development activities.
He said his company had already employed about 500 strong local work force and he had been immensely impressed with the expertise and English language skills of the local human resource.
Source: Dawn
Date:4/27/2004
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