Pak out to rival India's IT boom,Indian IT,ITES sector,IT exports India,Pakistan's IT industry,software exports
Pak out to rival India's IT boom
By B Shankar
There is competition for India in the IT space in the immediate neighbourhood. Pakistan trying hard to catch up with India's boom in the IT and ITES sectors, registered as much as 50 per cent growth in exports last fiscal as a large number of Western firms headed steered away from India to go to Pakistan for IT-enabled services.
The growth statistics have been so impressive that the neighbouring country has pushed its exports target for the current year by close to 50 per cent to $108 million from $72 million last fiscal. Pakistan's IT vision targets to achieve a high sectoral growth to clock exports worth $9 billion by 2010.
As for India, the software and services exports have been growing at 32 per cent on a year-on-year basis, finishing just shy of $25 billion last fiscal year from $17.7 billion a year earlier. The exports are estimated to grow to $60 billion in sales by 2010.
The growth in Pakistan's IT exports has been driven primarily by a sudden growth in interest among Western companies to do business with Islamabad. This has inspired local investors to explore new opportunities, leading to an unprecedented growth in this sector during the past three years. Industry leaders now say though Pakistan has remained far behind India in telecommunications, the growth is on the right trajectory.
This has caused a fair amount of euphoria in Pakistan's IT industry. In fact, even the World Trade Organisation has estimated Pakistan's software exports to grow to over $100 million during 2005-06. However, it ended at $72.6 million. There has also been a boom in the outsourcing business in Pakistan with the number of call centres going up to 140 in just 18 months. Over 5,000 people have gained employment in these call centres. Reforms in the telecommunication space have also spurred this growth.
Will Pakistan eventually catch up with India? Not many think so. Even if it does, it will take Pakistan a long time to reach that level. For, with the advantage of being an early bird in this space and the world-class experience and presence it has achieved in the IT sector, India continues to remain the undisputable leader in the industry. And this gives India's IT industry an unbeatable edge over its emerging rivals.
India's software and services exports have been growing at a rate of 33 per cent, touching Rs Rs 29,500 crore in the first quarter of current fiscal ending June 30, 2006. According to trade data compiled by the Electronics and Computer Software Export Promotion Council (ESC), India's export of computer software and services including ITeS will increase to Rs 1,40,000 crore this fiscal, that being a 33 per cent growth over the achievement in the previous year at Rs 1,05,000 crore.
