Govt focusing on promoting IT entrepreneurship

ISLAMABAD: The government is taking inclusive steps to create a business-conducive environment to attract foreign direct investment (FDI) and promote entrepreneurship culture in the country

Ministry of Information Technology is providing an enabling environment to all stakeholders of the startup ecosystem to promote startup culture and attract FDI, said an official of the ministry of IT.

During the last year, he said not only the production of major crops, but also the export of IT and IT-enabled services increased significantly. Pakistan’s IT sector contributes about 1 percent to the gross domestic product, which is about $3.5 billion.

Talking about the performance and achievements of the Ministry, he said, investment in Pakistani startups was skyrocketing, and Pakistani startups have raised approximately $373 million, which is about 5 times bigger than $75 million investments as of last year.

Through DG Skills programmes, 2 million youth are being trained in various high-tech courses related to freelancing online. Now its phase two has also started. According to a State Bank report, he said, freelancing exports have reached $396 million with an increase of 85 percent.

Under the National Incubation Programs, 111,000 jobs have been created and memorandums have been signed for investment of Rs9.46 billion while revenue of Rs4.47 billion has been generated. Over 2,000 employment opportunities were created under the Tech Innovation Grants, while around Rs700 million worth of investment and Rs350 million of revenue were achieved.

“We have crossed a $2.6 billion mark of IT and ITeS till June 30, 2022” he said, adding that 30 Software Technology Parks (STPs) in different districts under public private partnerships were established across the country, with 10 more to come.

All related procedures have been completed for the establishment of state of art IT parks in Karachi and Islamabad, with a total cost of Rs40 billion, the official said. IT training is being conducted at the level of all the universities of the country.

The volume of FDI in the telecom industry from July 1, 2018 to March 30, 2022 was $6.10 billion, and Rs163.3 billion to be deposited in the national exchequer as tax. The total volume of the telecom industry has reached $16.90 billion.

Due to reforms in the telecom sector and various government policies, the number of active mobile SIMs in the country has reached 195 million by March 2022. The number of mobile and fixed broadband subscribers in the country has reached 119 million by June 2022 and the number of users using 3G and 4G has reached 116 million, he added.