Pakistan All Set to Magnify IT Industry Within 2 Years
The move has been taken to create employment opportunities for young talented people and to overcome the demand by the e-commerce sector for tech zones
While realizing the importance of the information technology (IT) sector, Pakistan is all set to magnify the industry with dedicated tech zones across the country within two years, a report in Bloomberg asserts.
Amer Hashmi, head of the government body responsible for developing science and technology zones, maintained that the world’s fifth-most populous nation is moving towards an initiative to launch tech zones by next year.
“It’s offering a 10-year waiver on corporate tax and imports of any equipment or building material needed for the areas, which will give the IT industry in Pakistan a “catapult push” that could double its size to as much as $6 billion in two years”, he added.
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As Bloomberg suggests, the measure has been taken to create employment opportunities for young talented people and to overcome the demand by the e-commerce sector for such zones.
Hashmi shared the details that the initiative first emerged when Prime Minister Imran Khan sought answers at a meeting as to why Pakistan was missing out on the tech boom to which he replied that the nation lacked a tech eco-system or an enabling environment.
He maintained that to attract big names like Google, Amazon, or Microsoft, the country needs to give special incentives which Pakistan is the last in the region to provide.
Meanwhile, the country strived hard in the past to initiate such projects.
“In 2006, it planned to spend $1 billion to build dozens of software parks, though that effort failed. This time, the government’s efforts will involve attracting global investment to ensure the project takes off”, the report read.
As per Hashmi, about half a dozen global companies along with 50 domestic firms are ready to set up the proposed zones and $1.5 billion of private investment will be poured into these projects.
A digital marketing agency founder, Habibullah Khan, expressed his views that Pakistan couldn’t have a full-blown tech explosion as the country lacks capital and the public-private partnership model suits it well.
The nation’s newly appointed finance minister, Shaukat Tarin, also pledged to support the IT industry, which he says could help diversify exports and help the nation get out of its regular boom and bust cycles.
