Study plan for IT industry okayed
LAHORE – Federal Minister for Information Technology, Awais Ahmad Khan Leghari has approved a project for carrying out a strategic study of the Pakistan’s information technology industry.
He gave the approval to the project at a meeting with the officials of the ministry and Pakistan Software Export Board, which would carry out project implementation. The initial duration of the project is 12 months with an approximate cost of Rs11.5 million and will be funded from the PTCL Research and Development Fund.
The minister said the aim of the project was to compile an annual IT industry study and strategic review with a view to analyzing performance of the sector across various market segments.
“Strategic Review 2004 will focus on providing a macro and micro view of the IT sector and the developments taking place in the Pakistani market against the performance highlights of the global IT industry,” he added.
He called for recourse to modern research methodologies during the course of strategic review, which he added should be drafted in a well-thought-out manner so that it provides a clear vision for IT industry to achieve a breakthrough in competitive environment.
The minister also called for inclusion in the strategic review “key recommendations for the companies operating within this market and the country’s federal and provincial governments”. “The focus is to create a strategic blueprint for the Pakistani IT software and services industry, which can help companies operating in this space to maximize growth,” he said.
Awais Leghari said the study will also serve as a feedback mechanism for the government, providing policymakers with an insight into the requirements of high growth IT market and the steps needed to further catalyze its development.
He said another objective of the review was to compare the state of Pakistan’s IT sector vis-a-vis the global IT trends and to respond to the requirements of making necessary policies and action plans.
He recalled that earlier in year 2000, an IT policy was drafted with broad based inputs from the IT experts and the policy was approved by the cabinet. However, it was observed that due to shift in global IT trends and world-wide economic slowdown Pakistan unfortunately had not lived up to its full potential, with exports remaining stuck at the US $ 125 million level for the past few years. This was in spite of all efforts on the part of the government to provide incentives such as a complete tax holiday till 2016 on IT and ITeS exports, dramatic reduction in the cost of bandwidth, and other similar incentives.
He maintained that the government had invested heavily since 1999 both in terms of money and in terms of significant support it had provided in the form of close attention that was paid to the IT sector by the ministry of science and technology and presently in the shape of ministry of IT and telecom.
“However, there is hardly any forward movement on the ground, and the reality is that the industry is still in its infancy,” he observed.
“He felt that there was an urgent requirement to take stock of the current situation, analyse what the issues are that are hampering Pakistan in its export efforts, and make recommendations on the way forward”.
He asked Pakistan Software Export Board to hire reputed companies having proven experience in conducting similar research studies. He also approved hiring of consulting companies for the purpose of data collection, analysis and recommendations for strategic policy.
Source: The Nation
Date:5/8/2004
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