IT exports witnesses 40pc increase in last 6 months: Senate told

ISLAMABAD: Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunications Syed Amin-ul-Haque on Tuesday informed the Senate that IT exports registered 40 per cent increase during last six months.

Responding to various supplementary questions during Question Hour, the Minister said that exports remittances inflow target for 2020-23 was $5 billion.

He said Pakistan would soon start assembling mobile phones and its accessories and policy has already been approved by the ECC and the Cabinet.

He said IT Sector has potential to increase its exports more than $ 10 billion. Pakistan’s IT industry was an evolving regime, he said.

He said IT was growing at a faster rate, earning valuable foreign exchange, creating high paying jobs, improving national productivity and quality of life through innovative technology solutions.

This could be garnered from the fact that IT & IT enabled Services (ITeS) export remittances comprising computer services and call center services had surged to $1.230 billion at a growth rate of 23.71% in the FY 2019-20 in comparison to $994.848 million during the same period despite current global economic challenges .

The minister said IT & IT enabled Services (ITeS) export remittances comprising computer services and call center services had surged to $648.940 million at a growth rate of 38.16% during July-November of FY 2020-21, in comparison to $469.713 million during July-November of FY 2019-20.

IT & IT enabled Services (ITeS) export remittances, including telecommunication, computer and information services had risen to $763.060 million at a growth rate of 39.03% during July-November of FY 2020-21 in comparison to $548.830 million during July-November of FY 2019-20, he added.

He said the number of PSEB registered IT & ITeS companies as of 30th November, 2020 was 2,746 compared to 2,121 valid registrations as of November, 2019.

North America, UAE and UK were currently the largest markets for Pakistan’s IT Industry, he said.

He said Pakistan’s IT sector exported products and services to over 100 countries and counts world’s largest entities among its regular clients. It was the largest net service export industry in Pakistan’s economy, he added.

He said Pakistan’s IT sector had the bandwidth to provide state of the art IT products and services and thus had the potential to significantly boost much needed foreign exchange earnings for Pakistan.

To a separate question, Syed Aminul Haque said the southern districts of KPK were mentioned in the gazette published by IT ministry regarding Determination of Underserved Areas under rule 2(XXIV) of USF rules 2006 for the launch of next generation broadband in unserved and underserved areas of Pakistan.

Furthermore, PTA was in process of revision of Quality of Service and Rollout obligations to further improve communication services in all over Pakistan, he said.