Minister for Information Technology Awais Ahmad Khan Leghari on Tuesday urged Pakistani IT companies to enhance quality of their products and services to become competitive in the international market. "Entrepreneurial spirit, a can-do attitude and a passion for quality are all needed by our companies to ensure that we are able to compete internationally," he said in a meeting with Nauman Hashmi, chief executive officer of an Islamabad-based company that won a $0.5 million contract for providing services to a German firm at the world's largest IT trade fair, CeBIT, Hanover in Germany.
IT ministry secretary Khalid Saeed and Pakistan Software Export Board managing-director Dr Aamir Mateen were also present. Hashmi told the minister that the competition for this contract was extremely tough. However, the company was able to sign the deal with Softel Communications GmbH Frankfurt, Germany due to superior quality of its services, he added.
He said under terms of the contract his company would provide inter-connect billing solution, install it at Softel's collocation facility in Frankfurt and support the system for next four years.
The minister advised local companies to work more diligently on the billing area as "billing is where revenue is recognised and assured, and is a requirement in any telecom operations around the globe".