PSEB to strengthen equity base of IT industry
KARACHI: To strengthen the equity base of IT companies and promote world class entrepreneurial culture in the IT industry, Pakistan Software Export Board (PSEB) is launching various initiatives to facilitate access to Venture Capital.
The projects are aimed at raising the fast track development and robust growth of the Pakistan’s IT industry.
PSEB’s Entrepreneurship Project has been initiated to provide consultancy and on due diligence to selected IT companies with the objective of qualifying them for Initial Public Offering (IPO). Currently, out of over 1082 IT companies in Pakistan, only two companies are listed on the Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE).
‘To get more companies listed, as envisioned under the project, PSEB would subsidise the consultancy cost by 75 percent while the selected companies would bear the remaining 25 percent of the consultancy fee’, a spokesman of PSEB said in a statement.
He said, in order to facilitate access to Venture Capital, PSEB would facilitate entrepreneurs in getting Venture Capital funding through vetting business plans and establishing linkages with Angel, VC, Private Equity, Public and Multilateral funding organisations.
He informed that PSEB has also launched an Apprenticeship Program for creating a pool of skilled resources in the Pakistan IT industry. Under the program, 1058 fresh graduates will be placed as apprentices within the Pakistani IT industry, the spokesman said. The spokesman told that a multinational IT company, Bearing Point, has already expressed its willingness to recruit about 100 IT apprentices out of which 46 have already been placed.
Another major project, the IT industry Internship Program, said the official Spokesman of PSEB, intends to bridge the gap between the IT industry and the academic institutions, and would help to mould fresh graduates into world-class professionals. Some 3100 internees from 205 universities and institutes were placed in the local IT industry and 235 IT departments of public and private sector organisations. The retention rate of the interns by the IT companies was more than 75 percent, while the remaining secured jobs in other organisations because of their internship experience.
Source: Daily Times
Date:11/29/2007
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