IT exports increase by 70 percent in last three years, claims minister

Provincial Minister for Industries and Trade Mian Aslam Iqbal has said that IT exports increased by 70 percent during the last three years in Pakistan. The minister stated this while addressing the "Lift Pakistan 2019" conference hosted by Jump Start Pakistan, here on Friday. A large number of investors and overseas Pakistanis attended the conference.

Pakistan has more than 2000 IT companies and call centers, and 300,000 English speaking IT professionals and 20,000 IT graduates and engineers being produced annually, he said. The government is moving towards right direction by adopting more business friendly policies, he added.

He said that government is working aggressively towards creating a comprehensive start of ecosystem, so as to channel the real potential of this growing market. He said that in the World Bank doing business report 2020, Pakistan improved by 28 points on the ease of doing business ranking from 136 to 108 out of 190 economies.

With a view to make Pakistan and Punjab's economy grow faster, it is utterly important to continue with our efforts to ensure a conducive business environment, he said adding that the government has taken measures which will guarantee and ensure that the business community's investments in Punjab are secured and their return are assured.

The minister said the Punjab government has recently launched e-pay, a mobile application for all business to government and public to government payments to facilitate the public and improve country's revenue collection through easy payment solutions.

Mian Aslam Iqbal said the government is fully committed to serve and facilitate its business community. At present around 52 incubation and acceleration programmes exist in the country from each of which 7-15 startups are graduating every year. In addition, incubators and accelerators, the start-ups of echo system has been strengthened further by co-working spaces, business process outsourcing services, 11 fellowship programmes growing scale of angel investment and the launch of local chapter of global initiatives.

The minister congratulated the Jump Start Pakistan and its team and all collaborators for their efforts who organized this event. He said it is an excellent platform that brings together the creative young mind professionals academicians, entrepreneurs and leading business personalities to explore new opportunities in the real potential of growth of our nation. Chairman Jump Start Pakistan Amjad Pervaiz also spoke on the occasion.