South Asia Investor Review

Pakistan’s IT exports increased by 44% during the first quarter (July, August and September) of the fiscal year 2020-21, according to a tweet by Razzak Dawood, Special Assistant to Prime Minister Imran Khan. Pharmaceutical exports saw 22.6% increase in the same period over last year.  Pakistan's information technology and pharmaceutical exports are soaring by double digits amid the COVID pandemic, much faster than the overall exports.  Razzak Dawood on IT Exports Technology Exports:  "I am glad to note that our exports of Telecommunication & IT Services have done very well during the period Jul-Sep of this Financial Year (FY). The exports have grown by 41% to USD 444 million as compared to USD 315 million in the corresponding period in the last FY", Mr. Dawood tweeted today .   In Fiscal Year 2019-20 ending in June, 2020, the Information Telecommunication (IT) and IT enabled Services (ITeS) export remittances surged 23.71% to $1.230 billion from $994.848 millio...

Pakistan's computer services exports soared 26% in March, 2020 over the same month last year. This growth occurred in spite of the coronavirus lockdown that began on March 23, 2020. The nation's total services exports fell 17% in the same month. Pakistan ICT Exports. Source: PBS The ICT services exports bucked the overall down trend in Pakistan's exports. The country exported computer service worth $102.26 million in March, 2020, up 25.77% from $81.31 million in March, 2019.  Overall telecommunications, computer and information services increased 19.44% to $134.95 million in March 2020, up from $112.99 million in March 2019.  Prior to the current coronavirus lockdown, PBS reported that Pakistan's technology exports increased 26.24% in the first 8 months  (July-February) of the current financial year. Double Digit CAGR in Pakistan IT-ITeS Exports in 2010-2018 The data released by the PBS showed that Pakistan earned a total amount of $887.47 million ...

Pakistan's information technology exports have bucked the nation's declining exports trend with double digit growth to reach $1,065 million in fiscal year 2018, according to the  State Bank of Pakistan .  It is generally believed that Pakistan's central bank underestimates technology exports. Some have argued that the actual IT exports were closer to  $5 billion  in fiscal 2018. Some of the differences can be attributed to the fact that the State Bank IT exports data does not include various non-IT sectors such as financial services, automobiles, and health care. Source: State Bank of Pakistan Pakistan IT exports surged 13.4% to $1.06 billion in fiscal year 2018 from $939 million in fiscal year 2017. The growth was even more robust in the prior year with IT exports rising 19.1% from $789 million in fiscal 2016 to reach $939 million in fiscal year 2017. Source: State Bank of Pakistan About $320 million of IT exports revenue in fiscal 2018 came from softw...

What is Ramadan all about? Is it only about abstaining from food and drink in the daylight hours? What is the key message for this Ramzan ? Isn't respecting Huqooq-ul-Ibad (human rights of others) as important as observing Huqooq-ul-Allah (Duties to Allah such as prayer and fasting) for each Muslim? What must Muslims do this Ramzan to fulfill all of their obligations to Allah and His creation? What does the Economic Survey of Pakistan say about Pakistan's GDP, per capita income, infrastructure development, education and other important indicators? What must Pakistani leaders do to ensure greater focus on and investment in education and not just in infrastructure ? What is the size of and the key priorities in Pakistan's budget for 2017-18? Should some of the $20 billion (out of the $50 billion budget) for infrastructure be allocated to education to boost Pakistan's stagnant literacy and school enrollment rates? Why is India losing IT jobs at a rate of 200,000 ...

5-year-old  British Pakistani  Ayan Qureshi is now the youngest Microsoft Certified Professional in he world, according to the  BBC . Ayan takes the title of world's youngest techie from  Shafay Thobani of Karachi  who was the youngest known Pakistani  to have become Microsoft Certified Professional at age 8 in 2012. Ayan Qureshi in Home Computer Lab Ayan was born in Lahore, but the family, including his mother, a doctor moved to London in 2009. His younger brother was born the UK in 2011. Ayan has set up his own computer lab at his home in Coventry, containing a computer network which he built. Ayan's father who is an IT consultant introduced his son to computers when he was only three years old. He let him play with his old computers, so he could understand hard drives and motherboards. "I found whatever I was telling him, the next day he'd remember everything I said, so I started to feed him more information," he told the BBC. Pakistani childre...

IT projects ranging from automated meter reading and computerized land records management to online education and mobile banking are now at various stages of implementation across Pakistan.  In a report released today , the World Bank calls these projects "unprecedented in the public sector in developing countries". The objective of these efforts is to reduce corruption, increase productivity and improve service delivery in both private and public sectors. Here's a brief description of five key areas where information technology penetration is visible: 1. Automated Meter Reading: Automatic Meter Reading (AMR) project has been rolled out across the country with the help of United States Agency for International Development (USAID).  It is aimed at reducing power theft which accounts for 20-30% of all power generated in Pakistan. It will provide accurate electronic meter readings with little human intervention, using technology to transmit meter readings data vi...

Pakistan's information technology industry is quite young. It is in very early stages of development compared to the much older and bigger Indian IT industry , which had a significant headstart of at least a decade over Pakistan. During the lost decade of the 1990s under Bhutto and Sharif governments, Pakistani economy stagnated and its IT industry did not make any headway. However, the industry has grown at 40% CAGR during the 2001-2007, and it is estimated at $2.8 billion as of last year, with about half of it coming from exports. This pales in comparison to over $5 billion revenue a year reported by India's Tata Consulting alone. Here's some data on Pakistan's IT industry : "The State Bank of Pakistan for 2007-08 reports the export figures of software and Information Technology-enabled services to be US$169 million which shows a consistent annual growth. State Bank of Pakistan adopted BPM 5 reporting system to report the IT exports revenue, which restricted t...

Hardly a day goes by without headlines about India's success. The headlines proclaim the newly-minted millionaires and billionaires in India, major international acquisitions by Indian companies, the phenomenal growth of Indian economy, India's entry into satellite launch business, the special invited presence of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at the G8 summit, etc. etc. Indian democracy also gets an honorable mention, along with its economy, particularly when comparisons are made with the other Asian giant China. However, there are many myths associated with India's recent economic resurgence on the world stage and its democracy. Here are a few that I have looked into: India's Success in Information Technology: There is a common misperception in Pakistan and other countries that India’s information technology(IT) success is the result of Indian government’s grand vision and smart policies in recent years. Based on my knowledge of the situation, nothing could be further ...