Pakistan has a lot of encouraging factors to emerge as a new hub of information technology growth in the next five years, prominent IT experts and global studies that also take into account geo-strategic challenges, say in their latest assessments.
"The prospects remain bright because the fundamentals of the Pakistani economy are solid and the country is expected to sustain high levels of investment and capital inflow, chief executive officer of a California-based company that pioneered IT services business in Pakistan, said in an interview.
Backing up his optimism with his long experience, international trends and global IT companies' search for English speaking workforce for their fast-paced growth, Najeeb Ghauri, the head of Netsol Technologies, says Pakistan can gain its rightful share in the bulging world market.
On the economic front, continued upbeat performance rising investment, a 7 percent average growth, healthy foreign exchange reserves level, soaring home remittances - and global financial institutions forecast of sustained high growth in the medium-term reinforce Ghauris confident outlook.
He said that maintaining political stability and overcoming security challenges will be important to lending further appeal to Pakistan's status as an emerging economy and further bolstering international investor confidence.
"So coming few months will be very important -- but overall the picture is hopeful as far as IT growth is concerned, said Ghauri, whose company expanded its business to one billion rupees in Pakistan last year. According to A T Kearney Global Services Location Index 2007, Pakistan is listed among countries holding out a vast potential and being financially more attractive than some major current destinations while an international study last year rated Pakistan as a major IT business hub in half a decade.
Highlighting advantages the South Asian country offers in terms of its skilled, English proficient yet inexpensive human resource, some of the ingredients considered vital to prospering the IT business, experts put Pakistan ahead of India and China as it also offers increasingly open and well-regulated business environment, Pakistan's exports of IT and services have grown by 50 percent year-on-year for the last three years. An upcoming 17-storey IT park in Lahore and growing software companies in Karachi symbolise the country's aspiration to advance in the futuristic field.
Pakistan Software Export Board now has an ambitious target to boost exports of software, services, call centres and BPO from US $1.4 billion in the fiscal year ended June to about $4.5 billion by 2010. By then, the overall IT and services industry in the country is also expected to grow to $10 billion from the current $2.4 billion a year.
A key advantage that ranks the country ahead of even bigger regional economies is the human capital the South Asian country boasts of in the long-term perspective. About 100 million of its 160 million people are aged below 25 years and with proliferation of IT institutions and infrastructure, a huge number is likely to go for the attractive profession.
Acknowledging the demographic advantage, a leading American entrepreneur told Pakistan's top economic managers in Washington that the country would have the second largest English-conversant population outside the English-speaking world.
Najeeb Ghauri, who is founding member of the US-Pakistan Business Council, says efforts are also underway to foster a better relationship with US companies as a number of them show keen interest in availing opportunities that most notably include services and financial sector. His own Nestol Technologies is slated to launch local public sector, e-government services.
Besides, Pakistan is also striving to enter the offshoring marketplace largely through contact centers and back-office services. Companies have set up approximately 100 contact centers in the country in the past three years. In addition to telemarketing, Pakistani workers provide payroll, accounting and human resources work.
However, the country also needs to establish quality higher education centers to rise to international expectations and demands over the longer-term, stresses Ghauri, who is a member of Pakistan Human Development Fund.
In addition, Pakistani professionals' greater international exposure , he feels, can also enhance its status as an emerging IT hub. In this context, he agrees to the idea of invigorating efforts to maximise the number of H1-B category American visas for Pakistani professionals since that will help market the country's potential and also improve its image.