PM Shehbaz Sharif invites IT companies to tap huge potential of Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday asserted that Pakistan had enormous untapped potential in the Information and Technology (IT) sector, inviting foreign IT companies and experts to fully explore the indigenous talented youth sector of the country.

The prime minister was addressing the inauguration ceremony of the 21st Asia Pacific ICT Alliance (APICTA) Awards 2022.

PM Shehbaz Sharif said that no doubt, in the last decade or so, Pakistani entrepreneurs had made great strides to promote IT sector with individual and collective efforts. The government was also playing a proactive role to support these efforts.

Given the youth potential, he said, out of the total population, 60 percent of the country’s population comprised youth. “This is a challenge as well as an opportunity to covert this potential into opportunity,” he added.

The prime minister said Pakistan possessed huge potential to increase its IT export. He said the country’s total IT export hovered around $2.6 billion dollars which did not fully reflect the immense talent. Pakistan has the huge strength to enhance this target to billions of dollars, he observed.

The prime minister mentioned that he had chaired a number of meetings to mull as to how galvanise their youth and enhance the IT sector. He said they had concluded that a target of around $5 billion dollars annually in the IT export could be easily achieved, adding he had invited the IT experts and youth to come forward and carve out a plan to achieve this target.

The event is being attended by 16 economies of the region, with more than 150 foreign delegates from Malaysia, Australia, Singapore, etc. Recognized as the Oscars of the Asian IT industry and popularly called the APICTA Awards, the 2022 edition is being held in Islamabad, from December 7-11.