Pakistan witnessed 41% growth in IT exports last year

ISLAMABAD, Nov 9 (APP): Pakistan has witnessed 41 per cent
growth in Information Technology (IT) exports during last fiscal
year with annual revenue of this vital industry surpassing US$ 2.5
billion a year.
With exponential growth in IT exports over the years, it
is expected to exceed US$ 5 billion before 2020.
According to Pakistan Software Export Board (PSEB) on
Monday, Pakistan is in up-work’s top 5 countries in terms of
freelance earnings which is world’s largest portal for freelancing
IT work.
The PSEB has been established by Ministry of Information
Technology (MolT) to facilitate local and foreign investors and
customers and it is now facilitating over 2000 IT companies
including software houses and call centers.
The PSEB has also ensured certification to more than 150 IT
companies in IT quality standards such as ISO-9001, ISO-27001 and
Carnegie Mellon’s CMMI.
Enumerating the incentives, an official in PSEB said
investment in Pakistan ensures upto 70 per cent savings on annual
operational expenses as compared to costs in North America and
Europe.
Moreover, there also exists one of the most attractive
incentive programmes for IT investment with zero taxes on IT
exports at present.
The other benefits are 100 per cent repatriation of profits
allowed to foreign IT investors, upto 100 per cent equity allowed
for foreign investors and seven-year tax holiday for venture capital
funds, the official said.
Pakistan has also 15 IT parks with IT-enabled
infrastructure while three new state-of-the-art IT parks are
planned.
The official said Pakistani IT companies have many (Fortune
500) companies in North America, Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia
as their clients while Pakistani IT companies have won 25 gold and
silver awards at different international events including Asia
Pacific ICT Awards (APICTA)