ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s State Minister for Information Technology (IT) Shaza Fatima Khawaja said on Monday Pakistan’s technical expertise and Saudi Arabia’s market needs could combine for “valuable” investments in the IT and telecoms sector.
Khawaja said this at a meeting with Saudi tech companies who are part of a large delegation of Saudi investors and companies that arrived in Islamabad on Sunday for a two-day investment conference.
“We are dedicated to offering a stable and supportive framework … We encourage all Saudi companies to explore opportunities for partnerships and joint ventures,” Pakistani news agency APP reported, quoting Khawaja who urged the Saudi delegation to “capitalize on the synergies between Pakistani technical proficiency and the access to the Saudi market, accompanied by the potential for valuable investments.”
In 2023, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in Riyadh to bolster bilateral cooperation in information technology with a focus on accelerating digital transformation, fostering innovation and advancing digital infrastructure. Pakistan’s IT ministry at the time said Saudi Arabia would also create a dedicated desk to streamline the registration of Pakistani IT companies seeking to establish themselves in the Kingdom.
The LEAP 2023 conference in Saudi Arabia generated $9 billion in IT business and Pakistani companies developed leads worth upwards of $100 million on the sidelines in business-to-business matchmaking, according to the Pakistan Software Houses Association.
Pakistan’s market for computer software has seen steady growth for the past several years, with the total size of the software sector at approximately $3.2 billion.
The US is Pakistan’s largest market for IT, accounting for 54.5 percent in the 2023 financial year, according to the International Trade Administration.
Pakistan’s IT sector consists primarily of software development and IT-enabled services for data centers, technical service/call centers, and telecom services, with 60 percent of ITeS serving international customers. Much of the growth is driven by the work of freelancers and tech start-ups.
