KARACHI:
The current growth rate and employment trend indicate that Pakistan’s Information Communication Technology (ICT) industry will exceed the $10-billion mark within the next five years, Pakistan Software Houses Association for IT and IT-enabled services said on its website.
Though some industry experts were sceptical of these estimates, the industry’s representative body is optimistic that the ICT sector would exceed $11 billion in the next five years, especially the employment growth rate, which is over 41%.
According to P@SHA, the industry is already grossing over $2 billion a year, up from less than a billion dollars a few years ago. With most tech companies’ growth exceeding 30% a year, the country’s ICT sector is growing significantly.
From its nascent beginnings in the late 1980s, the industry has come a long way to the point where its value proposition is validated over and over again. “The largest players – members of P@SHA – are grossing between $15 million and $25 million in revenues and receiving $100 million valuations,” it says.
The country’s technology sector is fast becoming a hub of high performance business. “What other sectors and countries achieved in 15 to 20 years, Pakistan’s technology scene is poised to achieve in less than a decade.
“Putting it all together, the Pakistani technology industry is very different from what it was in the early 1990s,” P@SHA said.
From four founding companies in 1994, P@SHA’s current membership exceeds 370. The industry had 4,200 employees in 2004 while current employment is at 12,000. The employers expect a rise in employment growth rate to 50% this year to meet the demand.
The aforesaid estimates come exclusively from members of P@SHA and exclude the earnings of tens of thousands of freelancers working in individual capacities. According to
Pakistan Startup report, there are about 1 million freelancers working from Pakistan mainly via elance, oDesk and freelancer – world’s famous online market places that count Pakistan among top 5 freelancing nations.
“It’s hard to get the exact idea of how big the industry’s actual size may be. Those who are earning high don’t disclose their revenues for two reasons: personal security and the Federal Board of Revenue. It is common for Pakistanis to hide their incomes because of threats from extortionists, particularly in Karachi,” said P@SHA President Jehan Ara.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 20th, 2014.
Upward move: Pakistan’s ICT sector to cross $10b mark, says P@SHA - The Express Tribune
Bit old but relevant....
Saudis to Invest $200 million in Pakistan’s IT Sector
The National Technology Group from Saudi Arabia recently held a seminar which was attended by Minister of IT, MD PSEB, senior management of NTG, Ministry of IT, PSEB, and executives from more than 50 companies. The subject was an investment of $200 million in the Pakistani software and telecom sector.
NTG is one of the largest Information and Communication Technology conglomerates in Saudi Arabia. It has an annual revenue over 2 billion riyals and has more than 20 ICT subsidiaries across the world including Saudi Arabia, Gulf, Egypt, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Turkey. Now, they are keen to invest in Pakistan.
State Minister for Information Technology and Telecom Anusha Rahman said:
Saudi investors are very keen to acquire IT companies of Pakistan and will come up with a list of 15-20 companies for acquisition.
She further added:
Telecom policy is being formulated in consultation with all stakeholders and expected to raise telecom revenue to Rs 800 billion by 2020 and Rs 1,200 billion by 2025.
Praising the initiative, MD PSEB, Asim Shahryar Husain, said that the opportunity offered by NTG will be lucrative for mid sized IT companies in Pakistan as they would have access to capital and an opportunity to go to new markets. He added that Pakistan’s IT remittances are expected to exceed half a billion dollars during 2014-15 while exports are expected to grow by 35% compared to last year to reach $2 billion.
NTG Pakistan would merge and acquire software houses in Pakistan followed by a public IPO
Chairman NTG, Mr. Mohammad AlBalla, said that NTG wants to form a holding company called NTG Pakistan, which would be a strategic partner of the PSEB. The company would be formed through mergers and acquisitions of software houses with NTG Pakistan (which was formerly known as AGCN Pakistan).
KPMG will be the auditor for all due diligence of the selected companies. Overall, the process is expected to take up to one year after which negotiations and acquisitions will go through. Once NTG Pakistan is fully established, a public IPO will take place to raise capital.
Anusha Rahman concluded by saying:
Pakistan is an attractive destination for IT and telecom investment because of the market size and availability of skilled IT resources and that the ministry plans on doing the second round of spectrum auction later this year.
NTG will be holding seminars in order to offer collaboration to go global. They will take place in Islamabad on 27th April at Serena, Lahore 28th April at Pearl Continental and 30th April in Karachi Movenpick.
Saudis to Invest $200 million in Pakistan's IT Sector :
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