The government has formulated an IT Exports Strategy Model based on six pillars including ease of doing business and cost factors.
The model and infrastructure are in line with the changing technologies and market conditions to ensure holistic growth of the IT sector.
This was revealed during a meeting chaired by the Federal Secretary Ministry of Information Technology & Telecommunication (MOIT&T), Shoaib Ahmad Siddiqui, to review steps being taken for enhancing the growth of Pakistan’s IT industry exports.
Officials of MOIT and Pakistan Software Export Board (PSEB) attended the meeting.
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PSEB Managing Director, Osman Nasir, said in his briefing that PSEB has formulated an IT Exports Strategy Model in line with the changing technologies and market conditions.
It is based on six pillars with a focus on Demand Generation, Ease of Doing Business, Capital availability, Supply optimization, Cost Factors, and Infrastructure.
Special priority is being given to setting up software technology parks in relatively underdeveloped areas to ensure holistic growth of the IT sector across Pakistan.
He said that discussions are underway for the establishment of software technology parks in Bannu, Rawalpindi, Faisalabad, and Hyderabad. PSEB website is also being revamped to make it more receptive to the industry.
PSEB is in the process of finalizing another website as well, which is likely to be launched soon and is specifically designed to attract international technology companies to Pakistan.
Additionally, PSEB has reduced the registration fee for startups from Rs. 5,000 to Rs. 1,000, and has exempted registration fee for one year for companies from underserved cities.
PSEB, which is a focal MoITT agency for enhancing IT exports, is in the process of being restructured to make it more receptive to the IT Industry needs and for it to extend maximum possible facilitation to the IT Industry.
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The Secretary IT, in his comments, asked PSEB to expedite the launching of a new website for marketing Pakistan’s IT Industry to the world’s largest companies and asked for setting up at least two software technology parks per month.
He said that we need to go the extra mile to fathom industry needs and extend maximum facilitation to the industry. He directed PSEB to further enhance interaction with a wide cross-section of the IT Industry for an all-inclusive consultative approach to ensure sustainable growth of Pakistan’s IT industry.
Over 2.5 years have gone for this GOV but NO working payment method for Pakistanis to charge for their products and services on their own website. (For foreign customers) Stripe or Paypal clone is the need of the IT industry. But for some reason it is ignored.
How do you expect freelancers and small IT companies to do grow faster when a basic payment processor is not available ?
Payoneer and similar services are NOT the answer. They don’t let people charge on their own websites. The customer has to open an account with PAyoneer to pay. This is sales killer.
The customer needs to land on the website, take out the credit card and pay.
Similarly Pakistanis can offer many services that can charge foreign customers every month. Also known as recurring payments. Again, there is NO payment processor that can do this in Pakistan.
This is baffling. Why would the government not do this on an emergency basis? Look at ALL the countries that did well in exports and there are number of payment processors available to their people.
I hope the government wakes up and makes their own solution or let the private sector do it. Change the laws and make news laws if needed.