Muhammad Zohaib Khan, Chairman of the Pakistan Software Houses Association (P@SHA), has said that the gaming industry is on the rise in Pakistan with a focus on mobile gaming, which has generated $171.30 million in 2022.
As per the latest statistics, $21.34 million was generated by online games and $16.13 million through downloadable games as well.
In a statement, the P@SHA Chief said that the revenue in the video games segment is projected to cross $200 million in 2023 with an annual growth rate of 9.77 percent from 2023 – 2027. However, this is not enough, given the true potential and expandable HR pool of Pakistan’s gaming industry, he added.
Currently, Pakistan employs around 8,500 game developers in three major sub-sectors including gaming products, middleware, and gaming services. He stressed that we can easily add 3000 gaming developers to the HR pool every year.
This way, Pakistan can comfortably attain a 30 percent year-on-year (YoY) growth in the gaming industry’s foreign remittances – provided we can invest in HR & skills development for the aspiring game developers.
Khan referred to Statista Market Forecast & International Trade Center (ITC) and said that Pakistan has the potential to become the next regional hub in game development as 64 percent of its population is young and, through targeted skills development, Pakistan can surpass its yearly projections.
Nonetheless, he reiterated his stance that the federal government, SBP & FBR need to adapt their practices and regulations to international best practices vis-Ã -vis foreign exchange management.
They also need to allow the IT & ITeS industry to freely manage their hard-earned foreign exchange to fund their businesses, reinvest into their entities, invest in marketing, sales, networking, and, at the same time, contribute to strengthening Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves (FER), he added.
He elaborated that ease of doing business for the IT & ITeS industry can only be ensured if they are allowed to freely manage their finances and remittances through banking channels.
However, this has to be a win-win situation for the government institutions and the gaming industry alike, and the IT industry as a whole. P@SHA is ever-willing to have a constructive and egalitarian consultative process with SBP & FBR to resolve their outstanding issues, Khan added.
