Pakistan's Progress In Information And Technology

[A1Kaid]

PAC Takhti 7 - YouTube

 

[A.Rafay]

3G a big opportunity for IT companies: Oracle

KARACHI: The 3G (Third Generation) technology is a big opportunity for information technology companies in Pakistan as they have a crucial role in the launch and operation of the high-speed and heavy data technology to millions of cellular users across the country.

This was stated by Pakistan and South Asia Growth Economy (West) Managing Director Ahsen Javed in a news briefing held here on Thursday. Oracle has been engaged with different telecom operators to deploy all software solutions and hardware equipments for 3G technology because Oracle is capable to deliver all solutions with complete integration.

He added that 3G technology on mobile phone is based on data storage and transmission which will be requirement of all operators hence Oracle sees its vital role in the launch of 3G technology in Pakistan, which is currently in development stages.

Talking about different sectors, Javed shared his experience of working with different companies, saying that Pakistan’s companies are very eager to adopt technology in their business surprisingly in contrast with the impression that people running their family business are shy in adopting technology in the businesses.

People in Pakistan welcome advanced technology as it is introduced worldwide without waiting for analysing experiences of different countries, the Oracle managing director said. Business tycoons are very confident about technology and believe that advancement in their business through IT could benefit them particularly reduction of their business cost and improvement of their efficiency and productivity in businesses.

In the manufacturing sector, Oracle products including application, solutions and systems are installed for financial management, human recourse management and security. Corporation has specific needs and we have complete solutions for them, so many of them are equipped with plug-and-play equipment based on complete hardware and software needs.

Javed pointed out that around 50 units of big textile companies have used Oracle’s different solutions and witnessed excellent responses regarding the efficiency of their production. Similarly the adopting trend of latest technology is amazingly high in Pakistan’s enterprises particularly in financial sectors, telecom companies, manufacturing units and government department.

Despite various challenges particularly economic slowdown and energy crisis, corporation are not reluctant to invest money on IT because they are very optimistic about the good time in future and exploring opportunities at the time where businesses environment is not conducive, Oracle managing director said.

The IT has been changed completely whatever it was 10 years ago. Now new trends and new technology are indispensable to grow in the market while doing research and development for innovation in the businesses to reduce operating cost as much as possible.

Therefore there is a dire need to simplify IT through minimising its complexity and it could be done when solution providers could have all solution portfolio for addressing the issues of corporations with respect to their operations and productivity issues.

Pakistan is the second biggest country is the region having PeopleSoft Campus Solution in its 15 big universities - the same solution installed at Stanford University. There are more universities in the process of enabling the system since it improves the management system of education system significantly.

Javed is very optimistic about Oracle business growth in Pakistan by virtue of potential in the local market. Oracle business in Pakistan has witnessed handsome progress as its customers base reached up to 1,100 including big and middle size corporation, he concluded.

Daily Times - Leading News Resource of Pakistan

 

[A.Rafay]

Pakistan, Jordan to cooperate in science and technology

ISLAMABAD - A delegation of senior scientists and officials from Jordan visited the Higher Education Commission (HEC) to explore potential areas of cooperation in the fields of science and technology, energy and higher education between the two countries.
HEC Chairman Dr Javaid R Laghari welcomed the delegation and apprised them about the HEC’s functions and role in strengthening higher education in Pakistan. He said the previous HEC establishment had brought revolutionary changes in the higher education sector. He said due to their revolutionary reforms, Pakistani universities had been included among the top international and Asian universities.
During the last decade, international collaboration with leading higher education institutions of academically advanced countries had been established throughout the globe. Pakistan’s higher education model, especially quality assurance reforms, were being followed by other developing countries.
The chairman invited Jordan’s Higher Education minister to visit Pakistan to explore more avenues of academic and scientific collaboration between the two countries.
The delegation agreed that greater cooperation and collaboration in education would lead to the economic prosperity of both countries and produce more skilled human resource for the Islamic world.
The delegation appreciated the HEC’s role in bringing vibrant and effective changes in the sector and showed keen interest for collaboration with Pakistan’s higher education institutions. They also acknowledged the contribution of Pakistani academicians and scientists in the development of Jordan.

Pakistan, Jordan to cooperate in science and technology | Pakistan Today | Latest news | Breaking news | Pakistan News | World news | Business | Sport and Multimedia

 

[Samlee]

Creative industry: Here’s why being Pakistani should make you proud

DUBAI:
Would it make you proud if I told you that the Venom character in the Spiderman III movie was developed and animated by a Pakistani? How does it feel to know that a Pakistani animator worked on Hollywood blockbusters such as X-Men First Class, The Day After Tomorrow, Mummy, The Incredible Hulk, Land of The Lost, Surf’s Up and Ghost Rider? How does it feel to know that the same animator won an Oscar in 2008 for working on the winning sequences of The Golden Compass?
Feels great, doesn’t it? I felt the elation at a whole different level, as I came to know all this through a white man I met at the JFK airport when I was flying from New York to Chicago before Christmas last year.
I felt numb with pride when he told me about the exploits of Meer Zafar Ali, a graduate from FAST Karachi, the man who won that Oscar and accomplished the other animation feats mentioned above. Since that eventful chat, I have been gathering the bits and pieces of one of Pakistan’s most exciting untold stories. Though still in a nascent state if compared to the international market and even neighbouring India, the Pakistani animation industry nonetheless holds great value in itself.
It all started with Commander Safeguard. We should all applaud Post Amazers for pioneering an animation lab test for which they will be remembered for in the history of Pakistani animation. That lab test pushed our advertising industry to come up with more local superheroes, such as Lifebuoy Germ Busters, Dettol Warriors and Milkateers, later giving way to Mr Jeem and Baankay Miyaan.
And when you talk about Pakistan’s animation industry, you simply cannot forget mentioning Asim Fida Khan. The maestro has worked on blockbuster Hollywood flicks such as Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, G.I Joe, The Tales of Despereaux and Snow White and the Huntsman.
To double down on this fact, I would like to couple it with another amazing accomplishment for Pakistan: the Pakistan-based company Trango Interactive, operated by Shehryar Hydari, has made animations for foreign clients like Audi, Nike, Lexus, UPS, Mazda, Hyundai, Sega AND it has made documentaries for the Discovery Channel. It has also made the animations for all BlackBerry ads in Pakistan.
Trango Interactive’s maiden video game, Sherra Jutt, was made for a Pakistani audience. The game inspired musicians like Haroon Rasheed, ex-member of the Awaz band, to step into the animation and game development industry. Haroon’s upcoming game, Burka Avenger, is in its last phase of packaging and will be launched soon.
Another great mention here is a group of talented guys from Islamabad who operate under the name of We R Play. How gratifying is it to have your game selected for publishing by the people behind world-famous games such as Angry Birds and Cut The Rope? These guys did it. We R Play’s latest game, Dream Chaser, was published just a few weeks ago by Chillingo, a premier game publisher that is a sister concern of Electronics Arts (EA) – and it is doing pretty well.
Another honourable mention is Mind Storm Studios, the game development company that received world recognition for Cricket Revolution. The game was not only rated as having the best game physics at many award ceremonies worldwide, but also received higher ratings than Electronic Arts’ conventional cricket game. This later resulted in EA Sports bidding for an acquisition of the game, but Mind Storm Studios rejected the deal. I would also like to tell you that this is the same company that made the official video game for the ICC World Cup 2011.
And here’s a shout-out to a software house in Karachi, Pi Labs, which developed the official iOS-based game for Garfield the cat a few months ago. The app has performed exceptionally well on the AppStore, given a strong marketing impetus to the official Garfield publisher. Another company that has achieved success in developing mobile games is Agnitus – a group of talented individuals who make addictive mobile-based learning games for children.
And when Pakistani companies like Caramel Tech Solutions work on foreign projects like Fear Factor, MTV Games and HALFBRICK – and collaborate with world giants such as DeNa – you can only say that for Pakistanis, the sky is the limit.
The writer runs a software company in Dubai and a healthcare startup in New York
Not many of you may know this, but the title animation sequence that plays before every episode of Game of Thrones, the world’s most-watched TV series these days, has been produced by Hameed Shaukat, a US-born Pakistani. He won an Emmy for Outstanding Main Title Design for the series in 2011, which he shared with teammates Robert Feng, Kirk Shintani and Angus Wall

Get a load of this: Post Amazers set the bar so high with Commander Safeguard that the same animated series was later adapted by Procter and Gamble in other countries, such as Mexico, China, Philippines and Kenya.
It is also worth mentioning that the Milkateers series won many short film and animation awards in Singapore and India.

Creative industry: Here

Dream chaser: First Pakistani iOS game title released


ISLAMABAD: Dream Chaser, the first iOS runner game from Pakistan was released on Thursday, April 4. The game has been developed by we.R.play and is being published by Chillingo, a leading games publisher on iOS. The release of Dream Chaser will mark a milestone for the gaming industry in Pakistan. This is the first time that Chillingo is publishing with a studio based in Pakistan. we.R.play is a start-up game development studio located in Islamabad. They have previously published three titles: Relief Copter, Pencil Pop and Space Leap. Dream Chaser is going to be their biggest release to date. The partnership with Chillingo is expected to bring in a greater advantage in promoting the game. Chillingo has worked with award winning titles around the world such as Angry Birds, Cut the Rope and Contre Jour. Dream Chaser will be available for download on iPhone and iPad on the App Store at a price of $0.99.


http://tribune.com.pk/story/536420/dream-chaser-first-pakistani-ios-game-title-released/

 

[Samlee]

3D-animated content: Pakistani company creates animated show for the UAE

KARACHI:
Pakistani animators are at par with animation artists from Vietnam, South Korea and Singapore – countries known for high-quality production of 3D-animated content – according to Stu Gamble, head of creative and production at Fanar Production, a UAE-based computer-generated animation company.
Gamble was speaking to The Express Tribune on Thursday evening at a dinner organised to celebrate the launch of Mansour Cartoon – an animated cartoon series for Emirati children produced in the Karachi studio of Ice Animations, an animation company which is part of the Lakson Group. Gamble said Ice Animations and other Pakistani visual effect companies have the potential to compete in the global animation industry.
“Cartoon Network and other top producers from the West have actually said that it [Pakistani animation] is very high-quality animation. So you’re actually standing up against some of the bigger animation houses,” he said.
Mansour Cartoon is a project of the Mobadala Development Company, which was established in 2002 by the Abu Dhabi government and has interests in a range of fields, including healthcare, infrastructure, financial services, aerospace, real estate, metals and mining and information and communications technology

Mobadala hired Fanar Production, which did the pre-production work on the project. This involved creating designs, colour schemes, scriptwriting, direction, production management etc. The production and part of the post-production of the series was outsourced to Ice Animations. “Ice Animations was by far the best in delivering the kind of quality I was looking for,” Gamble said, adding that the company also offered very competitive rates. Pakistan’s geographical proximity to the UAE also made it easy for Gamble to travel back and forth and keep track of the project.


Gamble believes the total size of the global animation industry is roughly $100 billion. About 20% of it consists of animation in the television industry alone, he says. “Animation is everywhere. It is in films, TV, computer games; but it is very difficult to get ahead in this field,” he observed.

The animation industry catering to the TV segment is concentrated mainly in China, Singapore and other countries in the region, Gamble says, while the animated films industry is concentrated mainly in the United States. “The Middle East is an emerging market, and they need to invest more in developing needed infrastructure,” he added.
While speaking to The Express Tribune, Ice Animations CEO Asif Iqbal said that the company earns most of its revenues serving foreign clients, but is involved in a few local projects as well. “We have so far made three live action visual effect films for international audiences. As far as I know, we are the only Pakistani company that does this kind of work at the international level,” he added.

Mansour Cartoon is a 13-episode, Arabic language television show that revolves around an Emirati kid called Mansour. Its first season has already aired in the UAE. Iqbal said Ice Productions will be producing the next season, too, which will be aired during the month of Ramazan.
Rashed Al Harmoodi, who created Mansour and works for the Mobadala Development Company, told The Express Tribune that Mansour is a role model for Emirati children. “He is a role model that kids can relate to. He drives kids towards different industries that we want them to go to. He is into science and engineering. He has built a robot that is a walking encyclopaedia and a search engine with high capabilities,” Harmoodi said.

3D-animated content: Pakistani company creates animated show for the UAE – The Express Tribune

 

[Umair Nawaz]

@Samlee

Zindabad yaar. Weldone.

 

[Umair Nawaz]

Creative industry: Here’s why being Pakistani should make you proud

DUBAI:
Would it make you proud if I told you that the Venom character in the Spiderman III movie was developed and animated by a Pakistani? How does it feel to know that a Pakistani animator worked on Hollywood blockbusters such as X-Men First Class, The Day After Tomorrow, Mummy, The Incredible Hulk, Land of The Lost, Surf’s Up and Ghost Rider? How does it feel to know that the same animator won an Oscar in 2008 for working on the winning sequences of The Golden Compass?
Feels great, doesn’t it? I felt the elation at a whole different level, as I came to know all this through a white man I met at the JFK airport when I was flying from New York to Chicago before Christmas last year.
I felt numb with pride when he told me about the exploits of Meer Zafar Ali, a graduate from FAST Karachi, the man who won that Oscar and accomplished the other animation feats mentioned above. Since that eventful chat, I have been gathering the bits and pieces of one of Pakistan’s most exciting untold stories. Though still in a nascent state if compared to the international market and even neighbouring India, the Pakistani animation industry nonetheless holds great value in itself.
It all started with Commander Safeguard. We should all applaud Post Amazers for pioneering an animation lab test for which they will be remembered for in the history of Pakistani animation. That lab test pushed our advertising industry to come up with more local superheroes, such as Lifebuoy Germ Busters, Dettol Warriors and Milkateers, later giving way to Mr Jeem and Baankay Miyaan.
And when you talk about Pakistan’s animation industry, you simply cannot forget mentioning Asim Fida Khan. The maestro has worked on blockbuster Hollywood flicks such as Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, G.I Joe, The Tales of Despereaux and Snow White and the Huntsman.
To double down on this fact, I would like to couple it with another amazing accomplishment for Pakistan: the Pakistan-based company Trango Interactive, operated by Shehryar Hydari, has made animations for foreign clients like Audi, Nike, Lexus, UPS, Mazda, Hyundai, Sega AND it has made documentaries for the Discovery Channel. It has also made the animations for all BlackBerry ads in Pakistan.
Trango Interactive’s maiden video game, Sherra Jutt, was made for a Pakistani audience. The game inspired musicians like Haroon Rasheed, ex-member of the Awaz band, to step into the animation and game development industry. Haroon’s upcoming game, Burka Avenger, is in its last phase of packaging and will be launched soon.
Another great mention here is a group of talented guys from Islamabad who operate under the name of We R Play. How gratifying is it to have your game selected for publishing by the people behind world-famous games such as Angry Birds and Cut The Rope? These guys did it. We R Play’s latest game, Dream Chaser, was published just a few weeks ago by Chillingo, a premier game publisher that is a sister concern of Electronics Arts (EA) – and it is doing pretty well.
Another honourable mention is Mind Storm Studios, the game development company that received world recognition for Cricket Revolution. The game was not only rated as having the best game physics at many award ceremonies worldwide, but also received higher ratings than Electronic Arts’ conventional cricket game. This later resulted in EA Sports bidding for an acquisition of the game, but Mind Storm Studios rejected the deal. I would also like to tell you that this is the same company that made the official video game for the ICC World Cup 2011.
And here’s a shout-out to a software house in Karachi, Pi Labs, which developed the official iOS-based game for Garfield the cat a few months ago. The app has performed exceptionally well on the AppStore, given a strong marketing impetus to the official Garfield publisher. Another company that has achieved success in developing mobile games is Agnitus – a group of talented individuals who make addictive mobile-based learning games for children.
And when Pakistani companies like Caramel Tech Solutions work on foreign projects like Fear Factor, MTV Games and HALFBRICK – and collaborate with world giants such as DeNa – you can only say that for Pakistanis, the sky is the limit.
The writer runs a software company in Dubai and a healthcare startup in New York
Not many of you may know this, but the title animation sequence that plays before every episode of Game of Thrones, the world’s most-watched TV series these days, has been produced by Hameed Shaukat, a US-born Pakistani. He won an Emmy for Outstanding Main Title Design for the series in 2011, which he shared with teammates Robert Feng, Kirk Shintani and Angus Wall

Get a load of this: Post Amazers set the bar so high with Commander Safeguard that the same animated series was later adapted by Procter and Gamble in other countries, such as Mexico, China, Philippines and Kenya.
It is also worth mentioning that the Milkateers series won many short film and animation awards in Singapore and India.

Creative industry: Here

Dream chaser: First Pakistani iOS game title released


ISLAMABAD: Dream Chaser, the first iOS runner game from Pakistan was released on Thursday, April 4. The game has been developed by we.R.play and is being published by Chillingo, a leading games publisher on iOS. The release of Dream Chaser will mark a milestone for the gaming industry in Pakistan. This is the first time that Chillingo is publishing with a studio based in Pakistan. we.R.play is a start-up game development studio located in Islamabad. They have previously published three titles: Relief Copter, Pencil Pop and Space Leap. Dream Chaser is going to be their biggest release to date. The partnership with Chillingo is expected to bring in a greater advantage in promoting the game. Chillingo has worked with award winning titles around the world such as Angry Birds, Cut the Rope and Contre Jour. Dream Chaser will be available for download on iPhone and iPad on the App Store at a price of $0.99.


Dream chaser: First Pakistani iOS game title released – The Express Tribune

@Armstrong @Talon @Alpha1 @Slav Defence

 

[Sugarcane]

Although old thread but title should be changed it "Information Technology" not "Information and Technology"

 

[A.Rafay]

The women who outshine in Pakistan’s tech industry

DUBAI: It might be a little hard to digest if I tell you that it’s not just Pakistan where the technology sector is dominated by men to an extreme level, but in fact the world over. The difference is that their tech industry glorifies their women rock stars and we don’t.
So how about we get to know our rock stars today in this column? I will try to talk about as many as I know, but of course there might be many I’m unaware of.
The first name that comes to mind is Kalsoom Lakhani, the founder and CEO of Invest2Innovate – a social venture that provides support to seed-stage social enterprises and provides them access to capital in new markets.
She received her bachelor’s from University of Virginia, and master’s degree from George Washington University.
Apart from being a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Shapers, the George Washington alumnus is also a co-ambassador for Sandbox, a global network of innovators under 30. If you are working on a strong social startup and require seed funding, she is definitely your go-to person.
Then we have this multi-talented Stanford grad, Sheba Najmi – once a Pakistani television news anchor, now an extremely versatile user experience designer and product strategist. She was a Code for America Fellow (2012) and has previously worked at Yahoo! as a lead designer for Yahoo! Mail – a product that caters to 260 million users worldwide.
Sheba is currently the Project Lead for Honolulu Answers and Social Media Handbook for Cities.
Then we have two women entrepreneurs whom I met last year at the Innovation Punjab program in Lahore, where all three of us were featured as innovation heroes by Google Pakistan and the Punjab government for its upcoming IT innovation policy.
Maria Umar, the founder of Women’s Digital League, was one of the two. She comes from the terrorism-stricken province of Khyber Pakhtunkhua, yet takes this double adversity to positive effect while she runs a one-of-a-kind venture that empowers women from all over the country to work from home while she provides them with online work such as application development, graphic design, content creation, data entry, social media and community management, and much more on similar lines.
The other innovative lady who I met is Sidra Qasim, the co-founder of Home Town Shoes – an extraordinarily unique e-commerce portal that sells beautifully handcrafted shoes made by Pakistani craftsmen, and sells it to the rest of the world, with a major buyers belonging to countries in Europe.
Then comes a name from aerospace engineering – a field that you’d least expect to hatch out a female entrepreneurs– Nida R Farid is an MIT graduate who is currently working on a project which she’s named “Karachi Energy Conservation Awareness – Small Tricks for Large Savings”.
The name of the venture being self-explanatory, her goal is to cut down the energy consumption from Karachi’s upper class neighborhoods, which she states, accounts for 70% of the entire city’s energy consumption, through awareness campaigns. The next time you come across a tea-seminar that creates awareness about how to use home appliances in line with the acute energy resources, there’s a good chance Nida’s the one behind it.
Then there’s Salma Jafri, who founded her own content marketing firm WordPL.net in 2008 and now works with Fortune 100 companies as a service provider. She work from home managing a remote team, apart from engaging into great new ventures such as her upcoming tech product, a content repurposing tool for marketers, which has made it to the quarter-final round of an international startup competition organised by the GIST Initiative, a partnership led by the US Department of State and CRDF Global.
She’s also the go-to person for Elance training in Pakistan, apart from being a columnist for leading industry publications such as Search Engine Watch.
Last but not least is a lady from Karachi, Arjumand Younus, who recently became Google’s Anita Borg Memorial Scholar for Europe, Middle East and Africa region. Google awards this scholarship to women who excel in computing and technology, who become active role models and leaders. She’s currently doing her PhD at the National University or Ireland, who also happens to be a part of the Faculty at IBA, Karachi.

The women who outshine in Pakistan

 

[Counter-Errorist]

Strategic draft plan proposed to boost IT industry

STAFF REPORT IBD: Pakistan Software Export Board (PSEB) has proposed a four-year draft of strategic plan to help increase size of information technology (IT) industry to $10 billion. The Board is also in process of reclassifying the revenue stream under the IT services to give a significant boost to IT exports.

“In order to achieve the task of expanding the IT market in the country, PSEB has identified eight strategic areas with missions and annual targets,” said an official of the PSEB.

These areas include facilitation, human resource development, industry finance, marketing, office space provision, public policy, quality and telecom bandwidth provision.

With regard to IT services exports, the official said that the country plans to increase them by 271 percent in the next five years. It said 25 percent growth ratio in IT services would be achieved in 2013-14, 28 percent growth in 2014-15, 30 percent in 2015-16, 32 percent in 2016-17, 35 percent in 2016-17 and 35 percent IT services growth targets have been set for the financial year 2017-18.

He said that in conjunction with stakeholders, the industry association, Planning Commission, SBP, industry and Ministry of IT, PSEB has developed a vision and strategic roadmap to fast-track the IT industry’s growth.

Strategic draft plan proposed to boost IT industry | Technology Times

 

[Counter-Errorist]

Govt gives approval to assemble laptops in Pakistan

Islamabad: Executive Director, Higher Education Commission (HEC) Dr. Mukhtar on Wednesday has announced that around five lacs laptops would be distributed among the students in next five years.

In a media briefing, the MD said that government has given an approval to assemble laptops in Pakistan which will help to cut the costs.

Dr. Mukhtar said that the HEC has facing no shortage of budget as the government issued all the due funds.

He further said that no work has been remained in pending in the absence of chairman of the HEC.
He also said that around 9,000 Ph.d have been registered in Pakistan.

 

[Samlee]

Innovation: IBA students develop app for news watchers

SUKKUR:
Two students from the Institute of Business Administration (IBA) Sukkur, Asadullah and Imran Leghari, have developed a new app for Pakistani news watchers. The app – Pakistan News Cloud – collects Pakistan-related news from the internet and compiles them on the user’s Android phone.

“People are developing mobile apps for foreign companies and clients and making money, but we have designed this particular app for Pakistanis either living in the country or overseas,” says Asadullah, who is doing Masters in Computer Networks at IBA.

The app can be downloaded for free on all Android phones. Not only can people get Pakistani news on the app, they can also share the news with their friends and family through their mobile phones, he adds.

IBA has supported the app through its incubation centre.

Before this app, Asadullah says, people had to visit sites of different news agencies or newspapers for looking for news related to Pakistan, but now they can get all types of Pakistani news on one page. Initially, “we have developed this app for Android phones, but in the second phase we are going to update it for iPhones and Window phones.”

Imran Leghari is doing Masters in Marketing and is responsible for launching and marketing of the software. “Our next move is to launch this software for iPhones and Window phones and we are also planning to develop software for health and education issues,” he says.

They will also develop a software for Pakistani children living abroad, he adds, which will deal with Islamic education, teachings of the Quran and the Holy Prophet (PBUH) and Namaz.

Leghari adds that in the near future they are also going to develop a security app for the people using Android phones. In case of an accident or mobile snatching, simply pressing a button will activate the software and five messages will be sent to five of the user’s contacts in five minutes, through which the receivers of the messages will know about the exact location of that person.

Both students praised their college and teachers for the help they provided.

Director Centre for Entrepreneurial Development and Leadership IBA, Ali Akbar Rizvi, while talking to The Express Tribune, said “We have developed the incubation centre for students to develop entrepreneurial skills.”

Rizvi expressed pride in his students’ work. People, he said, design such softwares to make money, but these students have come up with their product to serve the masses.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 11th, 2013.


Innovation: IBA students develop app for news watchers – The Express Tribune

 

[Bouncer]

Here's an interesting report on size of Pakistan's IT industry. Author has used figures from financial reports of State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) from 2008 to estimate the size of industry.
I can't seem to post URL's so I am copying the article below.


//

Sizing up Pakistan IT Industry Exports and Domestic Spend

I recently came across an Associated Press of Pakistan story in a leading national newspaper which was based on a document sourced from the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunications (MoIT&T). The title was Pakistan IT services exports rose 97.34% in the last five years. It further claimed that the Ministry claimed in the National Assembly that IT services exports will increase by 271% in the next five years totaling US$ 3.77 billion. The following table documents the past and projected figures quoted by the Ministry based on information sourced from Pakistan Software Export Board (PSEB).

Ministry of IT & Telecommunication IT Services Export Figures – (P) are projected figures

Since I find myself quoting these figures often, I wanted to cross-check the numbers against those reported by the State Bank of Pakistan. The following figures shows the export revenues compiled against Computer and Information Services as reported in State Bank of Pakistan documents for the previous ten years.

IT Exports of Pakistan as reported by State Bank of Pakistan

The first thing that jumps out is a gradually increasing divergence between the State Bank numbers and MoIT&T/PSEB numbers for the past years. The difference has grown from US$ 18 million in 2008-09 to US$ 40 million in 2012-13 with the PSEB reporting a consistently higher figure. I went through considerable research to figure out if this difference can be accounted for somehow, and realized that SBP allocates Call Center service export under a separate head in its BoP reporting. PSEB and MoIT&T is therefore adding the Call Centre service exports as reported by SBP to the IT Services exports to arrive at cumulative export figures of IT and IT enabled Services (ITeS) like BPO and outsourced call centers. Since India includes BPO exports to the IT services exports, that’s a reasonable thing to do when reporting Pakistan IT export figures.

The Official IT Exports of Pakistan
The following figure depicts the Pakistani IT and ITeS exports and corresponding growth trend over the past 10 years and the future projection of MoIT&T into one graphic.

Pakistan IT and ITeS Exports as per SBP. (P) are projections as per MoIT&T

Pakistan IT and ITeS Exports as per SBP

One thing that became painfully obvious during the research was that there is no official, stated policy for export recognition by PSEB or the MoIT&T. The numbers and policies cited by PSEB over the past few years are all over the map ranging from “rules of thumb” to “survey based analysis” to “80:20 rule” based guesses. According to this PSEB document, the figures for FY 2008 IT exports ranged from US$ 469 million to US$ 762 million depending on which methodology is used. Both of these are a far cry from the US$ 169 million figure recently quoted by PSEB to MoIT&T. This clearly depicts a very confused state of affairs at PSEB as the same data reported at two different occasions does not match with each other.

Guesstimating the Actual Size of Pakistan IT Industry
After reviewing several documents, press reports and policy documents listed in the notes with this article, it is clear that the size of Pakistani IT and ITeS exports is much larger than the official figures quoted above. A study by Bearing Point in 2005-06, states that 3 out of every 4 dollars earned in IT exports remains outside the country. That would peg the current size of IT and ITeS exports to 334 x 4 = US$ 1,336 million. I believe that’s a gross over-estimation.

Another document prepared by Technomics for PSEB in 2010 provides a much better perspective and guidance for estimating the size of the Pakistani IT industry based on comparisons with India and Ireland. The study suggests that the best way to estimate the size of the industry is through representative surveys of companies operating in the industry. Based on that survey, and after correcting for non-response bias, it was estimated that the size of IT exports in Pakistan ranged from US$ 469 million to US$ 762 million while the local spend on IT in Pakistan ranged from US$ 227 million to US$ 393 million.


Technomics estimate of Pakistan IT industry. Image linked to original report.

I am personally inclined to use the lowest estimate of US$ 469 million from this study to estimate total Pakistani IT exports in FY 2008. Primarily because the “India RBI Model” based methodology explained in the report seems most reasonable to me. There is another reason for that. This report claims that according to a survey conducted in the same period, 75 of the largest software houses reported a total of 7,500 full time staff employed with them. I am assuming another 5,000 were employed by around 1,000 or so much smaller registered software houses at the time (on average 5 employees per company) who did not respond to the survey. Since the Pakistani IT export industry is predominantly service based, using US$ 35,000/head/year annual service revenue would peg the exports at approximately US$ 438 million.

Similarly, for domestic spend, I am also inclined to believe that the estimate of US$ 249 million seems most reasonable as derived by the India RBI Model in the study.

Applying the same 2008 multiples (2.78 times SBP numbers for exports and 1.47 times SBP numbers for domestic spend) to the FY 2013 exports reported by SBP, my guess is that actual FY 2013 IT and ITeS exports stand at approximately US$ 929 million and domestic spend is approximately US$ 491 million. That will peg the total IT and ITeS industry of Pakistan at approximately US$ 1.4 billion today including exports as well as domestic spend and excluding hardware revenue.

Freelancers Contributing to the Growth
As a side note, the freelance IT economy in Pakistan is on the rise also. Based on unofficial figures obtained through private discussions with various online freelancing outfits, Pakistan based freelancers raked in anywhere from US$ 50 million to US$70 million in 2012-13. Unfortunately only 10%-20% of this gets into Pakistan as export revenue and the rest either stays outside or doesn’t get recognized as IT export revenue.

Parting Remarks
As is clear from the text of the article that these are simply estimates and guesses based on rules of thumbs and extrapolation of studies done over 5 years ago. There is a dire need to conduct another survey of Pakistani IT industry to arrive at better numbers. It is my understanding that Pakistan Software Houses Association (P@SHA) is in the process of conducting such a survey and I look forward to its findings. Until then, however, I plan to use these numbers for quoting the size of Pakistani IT industry when needed. I’d love to hear what you use for estimating the size of Pakistan’s IT industry. Please leave a comment if you have a thought on the subject.

 

[ngockhue]

Công nghệ ngày càng phát triển.

 

[Reviewer21]

Which is the biggest IT company and by this I mean a Pakistani company?