This was stated by Federal Minister of IT and Telecom, Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, while talking to the inauguration ceremony of 19th ITCN Asia at Expo Center on Wednesday.
The unavailability of accessible payment solution is the biggest impediment in the way of enhancing exports of IT industry which is being addressed on the priority basis by the concerned ministry and the government, as it has been working consistently and innovatively to develop its indigence electronic payment gateway for Pakistan.
He expressed hope that IT export will grow manifolds with the introduction of e-payment gateway in Pakistan in coming years as the industry has explored a lot of potentials in various emerging fields in the recent years achieving a mark of $1 billion per annum.
Pakistan IT exporting companies, freelancers, exporters of various products and service providers will be benefited from the payment gateway, he added.
Federal minister said ITCN Asia has been taking place for the 19 straight years in Pakistan, which is evident of the growing potential of the IT industry in Pakistan and its bright scope for the future.
He said that Pakistan has been left behind by regional countries in recent years but the country is set to explore its vision from the new beginning as the previous government had not paid due importance to this sector. The present government wants to transform a new Pakistan as the digital Pakistan and it has been working consistently on its target of digitization in various sectors, Dr Siddiqui said.
In this connection, the ministry has announced the launch of IT City and IT Parks in the city which already generates 65 percent revenues of the country but receives a very little from its contribution.
He added that the scope of the IT industry is bright in the country but facilitation to the sector is indispensable to expand the industry at faster pace. Pakistan needs to cultivate its human talent through training and capacity building in the right direction because a majority of the graduates of the university in the discipline of IT does not meet the requirement of the global business, he said.
Ministry of IT and Telecommunication is mulling to set up a watchdog over the academia of IT in order to train the human capital of the country at par with the global standards.
Governor Imran Ismail also spoke to the media and expressed the importance of IT sector in the economy and exports of the country. He said that the present government laid down special focus on IT and related areas that will also provide synergy to different sectors and businesses in the country.
Speaking about the event, Umair Nizam, Vice President and Director of Ecommerce Gateway Pakistan, stated: "There is substantial potential for Pakistan to exponentially develop the IT sector and even make it the biggest foreign exchange earner for Pakistan in coming years, besides creating employment for a million or more people, even within the next 3 years."
Since the last 70 years, Pakistan's IT sector's strategy has been vertical pillar growth, working with 100 companies in contrast to the global model is the "Horizontal Pyramid Growth Strategy" creating 80 percent of the base with domestic commerce, he said and added the remaining 20 percent at the top of the pyramid is international commerce.
He suggested that the domestic commerce can open up several opportunities within Pakistan connecting SMEs from Farm to Market and Village to Big City, on the other hand, the creation of international e-commerce platforms connects SMEs of Pakistan to the world.
A large number of breakout sessions and B2B meetings is also being held on the sidelines of this event. Further, on September 19, the last day of the event, Ecommerce Gateway will also be launching its innovative new B2B portal, ecombri.com, which is a unique buyer and seller platform of the Belt Road Initiative (BRI) countries.
This will be a huge opportunity for opening up of several new opportunities for Pakistan, including increase in exports of non-IT products and services which have immense demand abroad, and leveraging of the BRI through joint ventures between Pakistan and Chinese SMEs to capture world markets.
It is estimated that this platform and association initiatives will have the potential of enhancing non-IT export to $50 billion in three years.