ISLAMABAD: Pakistan expects IT exports to reach up to $4.6 billion in the current fiscal year, the Prime Minister’s Office said on Monday, underscoring the government’s push to expand one of the country’s fastest-growing sources of foreign exchange.
Pakistan’s IT and IT-enabled services sector has emerged as a major pillar of the economy in recent years, helping offset pressure on the country’s external account amid recurring balance-of-payments crises. The sector generated a record $3.8 billion in exports in FY25, up 18 percent year-on-year, while monthly exports crossed the $400 million mark for the first time in December 2025.
The industry has benefited from rising global demand for outsourced digital services, a large freelance workforce and policy measures aimed at encouraging exporters to repatriate earnings through official channels. ICT export remittances rose nearly 20 percent to $2.61 billion in the first seven months of FY26, according to government data released earlier this year.
“This fiscal year, Pakistan is expected to achieve IT exports worth $4.5 to $4.6 billion,” the PM office said in a statement after Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif chaired a meeting on the information technology and telecom sector in Islamabad, where officials briefed him on export growth, digital infrastructure expansion and recent developments including the country’s 5G spectrum auction.
“The promotion of the IT sector and increase in IT-related exports are among the government’s foremost priorities.”
The number of home Internet connections nationwide had increased from 1.9 million in 2024 to 5.1 million in 2026, the statement said.
Pakistan recently completed a 5G spectrum auction that generated $509 million in revenue, which officials described as the world’s largest such auction since 2016.
The PM office said free Internet hotspot projects in Islamabad were nearing completion, while e-learning pods were being installed at Fatima Jinnah Park and Saidpur Model Village in the capital.
