Pakistan fast emerging as potential IT Market
By Ali Imran

ISLAMABAD—With the increasingly realized benefits of Silicon Valley throughout the world, Pakistan has emerged as a potential destination of international entrepreneurs in the field of information technology.
“Securing recent rapid 7 percent growth rate and 800 percent increase in its stock market, Pakistan’s key step is to build a bridge to Silicon Valley and the country is rapidly stepping up its links with recognized world brands,” San Jose Mercury News, a US-based newspaper, in its recent issue quoted Greg Hinkley, the CEO of Mentor Graphics, as having mentioned in an article.
He said that India and Pakistan are viewed as companions, rather than competitors and added Pakistan could be the better choice, to everyone’s benefit. “My company has picked Pakistan for its development team because of workforce quality, lower costs and lower turnover.”
Regarding the human resource development in the IT sector, the article explained that as opportunities grow, experienced Pakistanis from abroad are returning to positions of responsibility. It quoted Pakistan Software Export Board Managing Director Yousaf Hussain as one example and said that he is a graduate of Rice, Cornell and the University of Texas, and has been an executive at Time Warner and MCI.
In his field of expertise, Hinkley said that Pakistan’s Venture Capital is particularly hard to predict. His investment experience includes India and China, and he saw how long it took these countries to get to critical mass as attractive investment destinations for US institutional investors.
Pakistan is assessing a $50 million fund to help kick-start venture capital support for local companies and how the Government of Pakistan structures and selects managers for this fund will determine whether future funds attract institutional investors and sponsorship support from top Silicon Valley firms, assuming attractive deal flow. This fund can lay out a road map for Venture Capital that moves Pakistan forward in the global innovation economy.
The article also mentioned that it was a positive sign that the IT sector in Pakistan is growing remarkably despite the worrying issue of law and order there. If the situation improves significantly, it will certainly give impetus to this sector making it comfortable for the Government of Pakistan to further strengthen the IT industry.
For the promotion of IT sector, Pakistan is successfully making strenuous efforts including launching of a number of target-oriented programmes, offering investment openings for international companies and establishment of a wide network of institutions throughout the country in order to produce IT professionals.
More recently, A.T. Kearney, a Chicago-based research and strategic management consulting company, in its latest annual survey report has placed Pakistan amongst the top few countries for its offshore services market potential in the IT field. This shows the depth of commitment and pace of development of the country’s IT services potential.