Undoubtedly, information and technology plays vital role in development of knowledge based society and economy. It is a vital force for economic development. For under-develop country namely, Pakistan who is a fertile place for information and technology industry to grow because of the availability of sufficient capital that could significantly accelerate its growth in future some of these vital resources are:
- More than half of Pakistan’s 200 million population falls with age bracket of 15-29 years which signifies a prodigious human and knowledge capital.
- Pakistan has above 300,000 IT specialists with English speaking proficiency and they have expertise of existing and incipient IT offerings and technologies.
- Above 20,000 IT engineers and graduates in a year are being produced by Universities in Pakistan.
Besides availability of extensive core capital, Government of Pakistan [GoP] is also actively playing its role to provide a fertile ground for information and technology industry to flourish rapidly. Some of incentive that GoP is offering for information and technology industry are as follow.
- Complete (100%) ownership of equity.
- Income tax exemption on IT exports revenue up until June 2019.
- Complete (100%) repatriation of profits.
- Tax break for venture capital funds up until, June 2024.
- Enhanced depreciation of 30 % on computer equipment.
- Accessibility of reliable, high-speed and instant internet connectivity.
- IT businesses permitted to open foreign exchange accounts in Pakistan.
Provided the available core resources and GoP support for information and technology industry. It is highly likely that Pakistan information and technology sector will show expedite growth in near future. Healthy sings for GoP efforts are already evident in recent reports like, Digital Pakistan Policy, published in 2018.
- Pakistan has more than 2000 IT companies & call centers and the number is growing every year.
- In global ranking, Pakistan has been ranked at number four for freelance development.
- In last three years, IT exports increased by 70%.
- Enterprise software, marketing tech and retail (e-commerce) have grown by 17%, 15%, and 8% respectively.
Given positive omen of Pakistan’s information and technology industry. It is anticipated that Pakistan will be able to improve its overall global IT ranking. As in 2012 it had dropped to 4 point and reached to 104 out of 142 countries listed in Global International Technology Report and unfortunately, until today it stands at 110. Nevertheless, recent growth clues of Pakistan’s information and technology are affirmative and it might will shortly provide the boost to overall economy of Pakistan in shape of increase exports, employment opportunity and to overall global IT ranking.
