IT industry growing by 25 per cent
ISLAMABAD- The Information Technology (IT) industry is currently employing seven million people and is growing at the rate of 25 per cent and it is the technology of the new century, Chairman Khan Research Laboratories (KRL) Kahuta Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan said here on Thursday. Dr Qadeer was addressing the concluding session of the week-long “Third Software Workshop”.
He said the government is aware of the importance of software development and its potential for export earnings. The steps taken by the government and Federal Minister for Science and Technology Professor Atta-ur-Rehman, in the form of waiver of duties and taxes, improvement of digital data networks and other incentives for software developers will help achieve the projected software export targets, he added.
He said that the revenue collection, crime control, electronic commerce, telecommunication and good governance were some examples of the gigantic tasks would be possible to carry out efficiently without extensive use of computers. “Software for these varied tasks need to be developed in order to achieve the desired objectives,” he added.
Dr Qadeer said the software development is a human-intensive activity, which needs special skills, and expertise, but very low initial investment. It suits the environment and economic conditions of Pakistan. Thus it provides lucrative scope for progress on one hand and on the other, it opens new vistas of employment and job opportunities,” he added.
He said during the last two decades, affordable computers have replaced the expensive mini and main-frame computers. Their low price and impressive computing power have enabled the users to solve both simple and complex problems in the areas of their interest. Now computers are used in every walk of life and human dependence on them has increased considerably,” he added.
The KRL chairman said software is a fast-evolving discipline. New tools and methodologies emerge every day. The software professionals, he said, need to be constantly updated with the modern trends and must keep abreast with these advancements to survive in the highly competitive world of software development.
He urged the participants to concentrate on engineering goods, as there was a very high demand for them. He also advised them to start their own ventures as banks are providing loans for IT firms.
Co-ordinator of the Software Engineering Workshop Dr M Afzal gave the background details of the participants. He said that the workshop was attended by 71 participants. Forty participants were from software industry, 16 from public and private sector academia, four from research organisations, seven from defence (Army and PAF), one from Punjab government CSP cadre, two from industrial sector and one from MCB. In total 44 organisation benefited from the programme.
Chairman Software Engineering Workshop M Nasim Khan said that the original capacity was for 50 participants but due to the number of applications, the number was increased to 71. Despite this, 30 applicants were refused, he added.
The week-long workshop dealt with the aspect of software engineering and both professional and academic sides were covered.
He said the importance of software development has been stressed time and again, and it is through workshops like these that the KRL is contributing in the national development activities.
He said the international software market is over $500 billion. “We can grab a sizeable portion of this market by producing quality software developers and IT professionals, who are well versed in the international trends, ethics and standards, particularly ISO-9000, CMM and Tick IT,” he added.
The areas covered were Rapid Application Development, e-commerce, lightweight software development, methodology software quality assurance, development and managing team, and project management. The participants of the workshop were mostly IT professionals working in reputed firms and organisations.
The workshop continued for six days and the teaching activity was conducted by 18 faculty members from Academia and software houses including Askari Information Systems, NUST, CresSoft, FAST, NUCES, FFIMCS, KRL, KIIT, LUMS, NetSol, Pak.Tel, PSEB and Techlogix.
Source: The News
Date:1/12/2001
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