ISLAMABAD: The investment in Information Technology domain in Pakistan has risen to US $ 5.138 billion as the sector is flourishing with each passing year.
The amount includes investment made between 2010 and end-2015. A good year for investment was 2014 when an amount was US $ 1,815.6 million and US $ 851.6 million in 2015, in wake of 3G and 4G launch.
Regulator - Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) and five key mobile companies operating in Pakistan have said a large portion of this investment inflow is from foreign investors ranging from UAE to Egypt, the US and China among others, Khaleej Times reported.
Minister of State for Information Technology and Telecom, Anusha Rehman had said, "The introduction of 3G and 4G mobile broadband has brought telecom sector at par with developed countries in terms of modern telecom services."
"We are proud of attracting these investments because this is a major input to enhance country's annual GDP. We are also thankful to foreign and domestic investors for reposing confidence in our economy. We hope they will bring in more investment on a fast-track basis," she said.
The quick expansion of IT and telecom sector has also helped created more jobs, which is the key economic policy of Prime Minister, who stresses "more jobs for more people, especially for the young."
The IT and telecom sectors are expanding and offering new jobs as the economy rolls into modern business of e-commerce, e-banking, e-health, e-education, IT applications, the fast-growing and immensely popular home-based businesses and content development.
The urgency to develop this sector is highlighted by latest World Bank studies which showed that a 10 percent expansion in high speed Internet connections boosts annual GDP growth by 1.38 per cent.
In light of this, "the present exponential rise in mobile broadband users is expected to make a very positive impact on Pakistan's economic growth."
IT exports registered 41 percent growth in 2015 as compared to last year and at the same time the content and software development is growing fast and is expected to boost business gain in this sub-sector within overall IT sector.
The 3G and 4G launch and its fast-track growth has led to expansion of financial services, Web, e-commerce-related operations and more specifically in relation to women who constitute 51 per cent of the population.
The overall growth of the sector is visible in all its sections as the latest PTA annual report said country's tele-density is now 61.8 per cent.
Telecom revenues for 2015 are estimated to be Rs. 449 billion. The Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) of cellular segment increased to Rs. 440 during 2015 compared to Rs. 432 in 2014. The total outgoing national cellular traffic increased to 393.1 billion at end of 2015, compared to 345.7 billion in 2014. The PTA said 393.1 billion SMS messages were exchanged on cellular network in 2015.
Director at PTA, Khurram Mehran said broadband subscribers rose swiftly to 26 million and broadband penetration has gone up from less than 3 percent to 15 percent by now.
Comments
Comments are closed.