Information Technology has tremendous scope globally for which joint efforts between the public and the private sector should be made to eliminate the gap. This was highlighted at a meeting on "Fact finding and strategy to boost the IT Sector in Pakistan" organised by the Services Export Development Cell (SEDC), a newly formed division at the Trade Development Authority of Pakistan, on 5th March 2009.
Mujeeb Khan, Head, WTO Cell, TDAP, initiated the meeting by elaborating the role of Services Export Development Cell, one of its major tasks being to support the IT sector in Pakistan and create market access for local IT industry.
Asif Ali Sheikh, Director General, Services Export Development Cell, TDAP, reiterated and further elaborated the importance of the co-ordinated efforts between the government and private sector to tap the true potential of the IT industry.
Talib Baloch, Managing Director, Pakistan Software Export Board, while emphasising on the undermining issues, categorically stated that " Pakistan can take its due market share only after eliminating the core obstacles which include lack of a proper legal and logistic framework, security issues, financing to the local companies and means to develop and retain quality human resource". He emphasised that the academia should be in line with the requirement and the expertise needed by the IT industry and in order to achieve the export target of US $6 billion by 2013, the country must produce half a million trained IT graduates for which curriculum development, teachers training and student orientation to the new concepts of IT is of crucial importance.
Few members also strongly pointed out the need to increase the domestic consumption of the IT enabled products, which would in turn open avenues to increase market access globally also. The meeting was attended by leading IT Exporters, IT Associations and Academicians. The participants lauded the efforts of the Services Export Development Cell, TDAP for gathering the important stakeholders of the IT industry on one platform.
Prominent speakers also included Abdullah Butt, President, Association of Call Centre Operators in Pakistan; Syed Azhar Afaq Rizvi, CEO and Director, Tech Angels Network Guarantee Ltd; Sajid Kadri, CEO, Catcos; Aamir Zahoor, NDC, BPO; Suleman Farooqui, CEO, Centric Technologies; Abdul Rehman, CE, Plexus Pvt Ltd; Zareef Ahmed, CEO, International Systems Technology; Hussain Wajih, Executive Vice President, Ensign Communiqué; Najam Khan, CEO, Soft Tech; Uzair Zavary, Vice President Marketing, Netline and Mujeeb Zahoor, General Manager, Touchstone Communication.-PR
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