Chairman Federal Task Force on Information & Communication Technologies (ICT) Salim Ghauri said on Monday that Pakistan IT industry possesses the potential of benefiting from the unavoidable challenges being faced by neighbouring countries in 2009.
He said the IT companies in neighbouring countries have grown out of proportion and the sustainability in growth is becoming a Herculean task there with every passing day. They have no option but to cut current expenditures heavily that would affect their business ventures, he added.
Also, said Salim Ghauri, in an emergency situation in 2009, the Western IT managers would be looking for new vendors and new places to outsource their projects, as the new vendors are always keen to provide better services at much lower cost with quality assurance. We had witnessed this trend back in the 2001 when IT industry crash and we should be ready for it ahead in 2009, he added. He said it is important for the Pakistan IT industry to move quickly in early 2009 and get its share of business from across the globe.
"We have always been complaining about Pakistan's image abroad while terming it a major hurdle in getting business from the outside world but the time has come to put such approach aside, as this is a reality which will continue to stay with us for near future," he said. "We will have to face the reality and dig opportunities out of the adverse circumstances to sustain the recession hit economies of the world." According to him, the year 2009 will also demand a change in attitude from the IT professionals from carefree and "take it easy man" style to a more professional approach. Now only the fittest will survive, he warned and added that in the same breath that there will be room for people to join IT industry but this year will require longer hours and more hard work from the professionals to sustain and survive.
"The financial packages will in fact decrease rather than increase. Little increments in salaries will be offered, which have been inflating in previous years, as the IT industry will either have to cut the workforce or offer decreased packages," he said, and added that the IT professionals should settle for smaller packages then losing a job.
So far as setting up a new IT business in 2009 is concerned, Ghauri said there's always opportunity for new entrepreneurs as they come up with new ideas and creativity. Many IT companies started their businesses in early 90s and wrote success stories in the years to come, simply because they relied upon innovative ideas and approaches, he added.
According to him, the IT industry will be the most important segment of Pakistan's economy and it will earn precious foreign exchange for the country in the years to come. He stressed the education institutions to be more focused in their curriculum and lectures to discuss ongoing global changes in world economies and its impact on IT industry. The industry will be cutting costs throughout 2009, but it will be working on better software simultaneously that will open new windows of opportunity for young professionals, he said.
Ghauri also urged the government to revisit tax policy towards the IT sector, as the tax holiday for IT sector is expiring in 2011 and any failure in extending it for another 10 years would cripple the industry from generating hundreds and thousands of jobs in the years to come. We have already seen that a good number of IT companies had shifted their businesses from tax-burdened regimes to tax free regimes in the past. The government of Pakistan needs to move fast on this front, he asserted.