ISLAMABAD: Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday said the country needed to hit $25 billion in information technology (IT) exports in the next five years, urging experts and entrepreneurs to present a plan to reach the target.
Pakistan is banking on its nascent but growing IT industry to increase its exports and generate critical foreign exchange revenue for a cash-strapped country. IT exports soared to $3.2 billion in the fiscal year 2023-2024, marking a robust 24% year-on-year increase from the previous fiscal’s $2.59 billion.
But the push to boost the sector is facing challenges as internet speeds in Pakistan have dropped by 30-40 percent over the past few weeks, affecting millions of Pakistanis, adversely hitting businesses and drawing nationwide complaints. The telecommunications authority has attributed the slowdown to damaged underwater cables while IT Minister Shaza Khawaja has blamed a surge in VPN use, but digital advocacy groups and IT unions say the internet slowdown may be linked to the government’s trial of an upgraded web management system or national firewall. The government says any firewall, if imposed, will not be used for censorship purposes.
Last month, the Pakistan Software Houses Association (P@SHA) said Pakistan's economy could lose up to $300 million due to internet disruptions caused by the imposition of a national firewall.
“The target is simple and we have to touch the figure of $25 billion in the next five years,” PM Sharif said on Thursday while addressing a ceremony organized by Google as it launched an initiative to manufacture 500,000 Chromebooks in Pakistan, the first of which was presented to the premier on Thursday. “Give me a pathway on how to achieve this figure.”
Speaking at the ceremony, Regional Director of Google for Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, Farhan S. Qureshi, said there were “huge opportunities” for freelancers in Pakistan.
There are 19 million freelancers globally, out of which Pakistan has 2.37 million active freelancers. The South Asian nation ranks among the top four countries that offer freelance services, with key global platforms for freelance work being Upwork, Fiverr, and PeoplePerHour.
According to data from the central bank. Pakistani freelancers earned $397.3 million in foreign remittances during the fiscal year 2021-22. This amount is likely underreported as much of freelance income is received as home remittances.
“The businesses of over 2.3 million freelancers are suffering due to the slow Internet services,” Tufail Ahmed Khan, president of the Pakistan Freelancers Association (PAFLA), told Arab News last month. “Not only freelancers but IT companies and e-commerce businesses are also affected by the significant degradation in Internet speed.”
He said Pakistani freelancers had earned over $350 million in 2023 while slow Internet speed was now making it difficult to complete projects online.
Khan said the most concerning aspect was that the government had given no timeline on when the issue would be resolved and the uncertainty could damage Pakistani freelancers’ reputation among clients.
Last month, workers on Fiverr said the global freelancing platform had made several accounts in Pakistan “unavailable” due to possible “Internet disruptions.”
