Ever wonder why the Pakistani IT industry did not grow in the past 25 years as much as it should have?
India grew. Malaysia grew with their Multi-Media Super Corridor. Dubai grew with the Internet City. Mexico comes in at No. 4 in offshore IT destinations in the world. Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, Bulgaria, Egypt, Brazil, the list goes on and we are at Number 25 on that list.
A country like Pakistan with the most amazing talent pool, universities overflowing with IT graduates, extremely low intellectual capital cost, an absolute understanding of the English language, which is a big factor for attracting business as well.
But we did not grow.
The rest of the world grew in exporting their IT expertise and we became a nation where Associations on top of Associations sprung up in IT industry. The volume of incubators were so many that they required incubation themselves.
But we remain dismal in our revenues when it came to the IT industry.
Pakistani IT Industry stands at 25th position worldwide
Well, it happened because 98% of the countries that grew their IT industry first established solid links with the Investment Banking industry. They educated the capital markets people about how important the field of IT was. They even hired in-house investment bankers to keep their links with the capital markets people.
Countries that launched IT parks first pitched their ideas to the investment bankers instead of the IT people. So much so that Dubai Internet City in the year 2002 amended their charter to allow me to open up an office in their building, which had nothing to do with IT industry. It was an oil company that i was chairing called PetroSAA. And all because they wanted an investment banker to be present amongst the IT people.
Pakistan IT Industry Needs to Help Local Banks Move to the 21st Century
I opened 3 more offices in DIC over the next 4 years. TekStoxx FZLLC, PGM London Ltd, Somerset Capital FZLLC, all from DIC but not IT companies. I also remember being invited by the Malaysian Ministry in 1996 to come and visit their IT park. Since my parents are from Hyderabad Deccan, the Andra Pradesh Chief Minister at that time, Chandra Babu Naidu, specially came to Wall Street to pitch the investment bankers to fund the Hitech City in Hyderabad.
Of course I was pleasant enough to decline his offer because Pakistan is where my loyalties always remained.
The point is, you can have the best idea. Best talent pool. Best pricing. Best scope and best everything, but if you do not have the funding and the IB expertise evaluating your project, you will not be able to grow.
Its only the investment bankers who take the risk and understand the vision and the commercial future value of an IT project.
They are the ones who fund it at the seed level and they are the ones who list it on the exchange for the exit strategy. Great companies in Pakistan like Netsol whose value in my view should be 4 times higher than what it is today are trading at a fire sale. Why? Because there is a disconnect between the IT vision and the ones who buy that vision, the Investment Bankers.
No IT conference invites investment bankers in Pakistan while we attended almost all IT events on Wall Street throughout America as investment bankers. Until this country realizes that the IT industry is so linked to the investment industry that it is like the spring water industry to the bottling industry.
Pakistani Companies like Netsol can be 4 times higher in value than what they are currently trading at if they had help from Investment Bankers.
Until the “so-called” IT experts realize that certain industries are absolutely intertwined with certain others, they will not grow. You do not need to be Sherlock Holmes to understand that.
Our IT industry needs investment bankers and Capital Markets experts. Incubating a start up is not a commitment to the IT industry. It’s the first step. What comes next is nurturing it. Evaluating it. Listing it. Giving it secondary financing for expansion. Creating liquidity for the founders. Giving it its deserved market price. Creating an awareness within the stock analyst community to give it a fair coverage and a million other things is commitment.
Our IT industry needs Investment Bankers and Capital Markets experts
Investment bankers are married to the IT industry since 1986 everywhere in the world. But in Pakistan, IT industry does not even date investment bankers, let alone being married. And that’s why they can not produce results. Because without this marriage, you can not produce the next generation.
While interesting analysis, my question is why the writer woke up now? I remember reading this entire piece as a status update couple of days ago.
When the IT industry was struggling, banking industry was not helping, when IT companies most needed support to expand and capture international market … where was Mr. Mir Mohammed Ali Khan?
Investment Bankers? They don’t know jack about investment here in IT industry. Only in the last decade have banks become mostly privatized and yet, all their investment is in government securities and bonds. They are perfectly happy and content with risk free, high return loans given to the government. They don’t provide loans to entrepreneurs, don’t give good return on deposits, don’t provide innovative products and solutions to increase customer base and they definitely have no interest in making banking mainstream by spreading all over Pakistan. Barely 15% of Pakistanis maintain a bank account.
And IT industry DOES NOT take loans. Most of our IT companies have zero liabilities. They have learned to survive on their own. They spend whatever they earn because banks have NO INTEREST in any investment and neither do IT companies in getting caught up with liabilities and tied down with unnecessary shackles. Banks are more interested to go after cement and textile, the rest of the industries can go to hell for all they care.
Sorry Mr. Mir, you woke up way too late and you only did so to sell your own ‘manjan’, otherwise IT would have been your first priority for investment when you came out of your depression post NY Times debacle.
As for association upon association … there is only one which is called P@SHA and people don’t even know if any other association even existed.
Talk about marriage between Investment Banking and IT sector when you have proven your worth and not creating things out of thin air. Pakistan isn’t India nor Mexico and we have very different dynamics and outlook for business and entrepreneurship. You want to make yourself useful to the IT industry? Go to banks and make them realize that government securities and bonds should not be their priority, people and businesses should be.
But why would you? Afterall, stock market and your course is more important for you.
Are you retarded, or just a moron? The writer said exactly what your pea-sized brain accused him of ignoring. To spare you any brain damage due to further usage, let me belabor the obvious. Our local banking industry is clueless and unhelpful to our IT industry. These blind Fk’s do not even open an account for a freelance developer. The writer highlighted just that. Regulatory frameworks and persuasion are needed to make banks look beyond government treasury bills.
Your wild assertion, that IT sector is doing better without banking support/loans, is hilarious at best. Isnt that why they are tiny in size and totally absent from world map?
I Dont really want to waste my time while debunking your arbitrary claims. Grow a brain, before reading this article instead of just the title. You will have higher chances of understanding it. I have a reason to believe that you just read the name of author and sprang to spit venom at him in garb of comment.
Thank you for showing your character.
Did you notice something fall down?
Yes, that’s right. It was your brain. Please pick it up and insert it back, use better screws this time, otherwise you will once again end up writing stupid words on the internet.
And since you are so courteous to ‘assume’ I started spewing venom just after reading the author’s name, I’ll return the courtesy to assume you are one of his henchman’s or, better yet, Mir Mohammed Ali Khan himself. A stupid nick like ‘joji’ does sound like something he would come up with.
And apparently in your haste to ‘counter’ me and use ‘demeaning’ words to show how ‘lowlife’ I am, you didn’t even read what I wrote. You need better skills to troll the internet.
– ‘Don’t even open an account for freelance developer’
Yes, they do. It’s called Savings Account. Be more precise what you write, just shows you are more interested in hurling insults than actually typing something worthwhile.
– ‘Banking industry clueless about IT industry’
No they are not. Only in the last decade the formation of 1LINK and banking systems integrating via 1LINK to provide access to accounts, money withdrawal, internet banking, funds transfer etc and use of softwares like Fundamo make them aware of EXACTLY what IT industry is.
The reality is … THEY . DON’T . CARE.
They have government bonds and securities, and they are perfectly happy with risk free, high yield investments in them. They have no interest in taking any risk, in IT or whatever, except Cement and Textile which a lot of these banks are interlinked with since 60s.
– ‘Regulatory framework and pursuation required for banks to look beyond government treasuries’
Are you even reading what you just posted? Seriously, this is hilarious. Are you (or Mir Mohammed Ali Khan) going to tell State Bank of Pakistan to issue regulation that banks should stop investing in government securities and instead go to other sectors, especially IT? Are you in your right mind? It took a direct order from State Bank to force banks to join MNET and 1LINK over a decade ago. It took a direct regulatory order to offer internet banking solutions. It took a direct order from State Bank a few days ago to FORCE banks to offer IBAN numbers on ALL accounts for international funds transfer.
The banking industry DOES NOT do anything with risk without a direct order. Good luck convincing State Bank of that, the government itself will be the first one to slam SBP for such an order.
– ‘Wild assertion that IT is doing better without loans’
As I said, please read. In your attempt to throw insults you don’t even know the context of what you are trying to debunk. I wrote that the IT industry does not take loans and most companies have zero liabilities, because in the absence of any interest of banking industry to help them, they have learned to survive on their own. They spend what the earn and are not interested in getting themselves ties down with loans.
What is so hard to understand there? Just goes to show how liable you are at going on a tangent rather than actually understand what is written.
– ‘Don’t really want to waste time’
Yes, please don’t waste any more time, your own or others. Apparently you should not be wasting time on your own self, you aren’t worth it.
– ‘Grow a brain’
You have completely unrealistic sense of human anatomy. Please read a biology book for a change, will you? Or maybe pick up your fallen brain and make sure it is fitted well before indicating what your character level is.
– ‘You just read the name’
No, I read the whole damn thing. And if you have survived this long without boiling in anger, just remember that Ramzan is still here and it would be best if you stop throwing insults. Name calling like ‘Moron’ does not suit you, especially if you are Mir Mohammed Ali Khan himself.
Next time, please be more mature in your reply. If you reply with sense and courtesy, only then will you be worthwhile to be responded to.
Hey Mir,
Don’t want to say anything. Just try contacting COWLAR (Startup) – They pitch the relationship of IT Industry and Cows way better than you just did. He’s a great guy too… He’d surely help you out! ;)
Cheers and Eid Mubarak!
BTW if you are referring to this piece “https://medium.com/@Homes_42/the-new-it-association-named-tech-pakistan-congratulations-youve-been-trolled-a3ab54b480fa#.mnfbje81k”. The whole point was diversity is not everything we need in an IT Association. Which you just missed out clarifying the fact that Investment Banking is related too! :)
That is obviously not the only reason that the tech industry hasn’t developed as quickly as some aforementioned countries however it is fair to state that a capital market for tech hasn’t emerged and is only sporadic at best. The key culprit is the govt which lacks the vision to drive the development of a complete ecosystem that helps nurture the industry. The local tech entrepreneur is primarily focused on building a business that turns profitable as quickly as possible due to lack of funding sources.
Capital markets will catch up over time with emergence of success stories, entry of corporate venture, international VCs, interest from a few traditional but deep pocketed business houses/ businessmen. This will take time unless a drastic and planned effort is made by the govt, industry leaders, academia and select leaders from the local finance industry; however I am doubtful this will happen.