Asim Shahryar Hussain who remained MD of Pakistan Software Export Board speaks out to The Dayspring about IT industry of Pakisan and talks various aspects of Information Technology.
Q1). You were the MD of PSEB (Pakistan Software Export Board). Can you tell us how PSEB has been facilitating and providing support to IT companies in Pakistan?
PSEB has multiple programs for supporting the IT industry including international marketing, capacity building, and infrastructure development. In international marketing, PSEB establishes Pakistan Pavilion at relevant IT exhibitions based on interest from member IT firms. This helps in marketing Pakistan’s IT industry to foreign clients as well as generates new leads for exhibiting companies. PSEB also organizes IT delegations to different countries where one-on-one meetings are arranged between Pakistani companies and foreign IT firms for business development.
Q2). What steps did you take for the growth and development of IT Sector during your tenure at PSEB?
International marketing had been on hold at PSEB for the previous two years before I joined PSEB in 2014. For the first time in the history of Mobile World Congress, world’s largest telecom event, PSEB established a Pakistan Pavilion at MWC 2015 which is now a featured event for PSEB every year. PSEB also produced a comprehensive documentary on Pakistan’s IT industry which received rave reviews from both industry and social media. Then PSEB relaunched the CMMI certification program and this time, we added ISO 27001 and ISO 20000 to the certification pool also. These certifications help IT companies in establishing their reputation and quality with foreign customers. Then PSEB also offered internships to 3000 IT graduates which was a big jump from 400 internships a year before. Finally, PSEB assisted Korea Eximbank in completion of feasibility study for a new IT park on PSEB’s land in Islamabad which resulted in signing of a loan agreement of $76.3 million for design and construction of a new state-of-the-art IT park in Pakistan.
Q3). Do you think IT Industry in Pakistan is booming and flourishing? Can you share some facts?
During the last 5 years, IT remittances as reported by State Bank have grown from $330 million in 2012-13 to $830 million in 2017-18. That’s a growth of 151% in 5 years! However, reported IT remittances are still below a billion dollars a year. Hence, the potential of Pakistan’s IT industry and talent is not reflected in the remittances figures at present. We can improve these figures through better reporting, better capacity building of IT graduates and IT companies, and more marketing of IT industry on global scale.
Q4). Can you tell us the challenges facing by IT Sector of Pakistan? Moreover, how did you tackle these issues during your tenure at PSEB?
Considering the perception of Pakistan in international media, any exports sector including IT faces multiple challenges. To overcome the negative perception of Pakistan in foreign media, PSEB produced and marketed a comprehensive documentary on Pakistan’s IT industry including testimonials of foreign clients as well as local CEOs. Then PSEB participated in more than ten international IT exhibitions with interested IT firms which created awareness about Pakistan’s IT potential at the international stage as well as generated business leads for participating companies. PSEB also took IT delegations to different countries including USA, China, Canada, Australia, etc. The delegates had one-on-one meetings with their counterparts for business development purposes.
Another challenge faced by IT sector is lack of infrastructure. PSEB has established around 13 makeshift software technology parks by providing office space and bandwidth to IT companies in Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Lahore, and Karachi. PSEB also assisted Korea Eximbank in completing feasibility study for a new IT park on PSEB’s land in Islamabad which resulted in a loan agreement of $76.3 million for design and construction of the IT park.
Q5). Has PSEB taken any steps to support Startups?
Majority of our IT firms are SMEs (small to medium enterprises of less than 100 employees). To motivate startups to register with PSEB, PSEB gave a discount of 50% on annual registration fees to startups. During my tenure, PSEB conducted three training workshops on business planning for startups in Islamabad, Peshawar, and Karachi. Startups found the training workshops very useful to learn about how to draft and present a business plan to potential investors. However, as far as incubation and mentoring of startups is concerned, that is the domain of Ignite (formerly National ICT R&D Fund) which has established five national incubation centers across the country so far.
Q6). Youth and Women are integral part of our society. Has PSEB taken any initiative to facilitate and empower young graduates & women?
Yes PSEB has been offering many IT internships to IT graduates for the last so many years. Last year, PSEB placed 3000 IT graduates as interns in different IT companies and IT departments of non-IT companies. Also, one of the conditions of the internship program was that at least 30% of the interns selected by IT companies should be female. Hence, PEB had allocated a quota of 30% for female IT graduates. Around 60% of the interns ended up getting jobs because of gaining useful hands on experience through their 6-month internships.
Q7). Would you like to share with us some facts and figures on Pakistan’s IT exports and imports during your tenure at PSEB? What are the current statistics?
Like I had mentioned before, Pakistan’s IT exports coming through banking channels as reported by State Bank of Pakistan in the year I joined PSEB (July 2014) were $370 million. By June 2017, annual IT remittances as reported by SBP had reached $655 million, a growth of 77% in 3 years. By June 2018, IT remittances had reached $830 million which is a growth of 26.7% over previous year. During 2017-18, IT imports as reported by SBP were $329.5 million which includes hardware, software, and services.
Q8). How do you see the potential of young Pakistani IT Professionals?
Some of our IT companies have done well at global level such as Netsol, Systems, TRG, etc. However, there are not many large IT companies in Pakistan like in India as well as globally. Our largest IT company has below 4000 employees. Hence, our companies need to growth through mergers and acquisitions to be able to handle large outsourcing projects from Fortune 500 companies which require a large number of HR for business development, project management, software design, development, quality assurance, documentation, training, and support.
Also, there is a big gap in skillset of IT graduates who graduate from upper tier universities as compared to graduates from lower tier universities. HEC should focus on improving quality of IT faculty in lower tier universities so that their graduates are at par with graduates of upper tier universities.
Q9). How can Pakistan’s IT industry be groomed?
To groom our IT industry, we need to invest in capacity building of both IT graduates as well as IT companies. To improve the quality of our IT graduates, we need to align the IT curriculum with the changing needs of local industry as well as global customers. We also need to provide specialized training courses and internships to new graduates so that they can get the hands on experience needed to work for IT companies.
To improve the quality of our IT companies, they need to certify their business processes in certain international standards such as CMMI, ISO 27001, ISO 20000, etc. Getting certified in these standards will improve the quality of processes and services delivered by these companies. Sometimes, these certifications are a prerequisite when bidding for international IT projects.
Q10). You are currently president of Open Source Foundation of Pakistan (OSFP). Would you like to share with us some details about it? What is the basic motive of this organization?
OSFP is the only officially registered body for promotion of open source in Pakistan which has been in operation since 2013. The long term vision of OSFP is to make Pakistan one of the global hubs for open source. For this purpose, OSFP has been creating awareness about open source through multiple events and conferences at different universities and venues. Now, we are focusing on adoption of open source in academia, industry, and government. For this purpose, we will propose an open source training and migration program to the government. If approved, then our plan is to train around 100,000 graduates and professionals in open source tools and technologies over the next five years.