Pakistan is confronted with serious problems of unemployment & poverty while Information Technology (IT) is the one area that offers enormous opportunities of creating countless jobs & improving economy and government should focus more on promoting IT sector to capitalize on its potential.

This was said by Zahid Maqbool, President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry while talking to a delegation of IT sector businessmen at ICCI. He said that country is facing a number of challenges for its economic growth and prosperity thus by putting more attention on the IT industry not only considerable revenue can be generated, but also a number of jobs can be created to help reduce unemployment. He said that the youth of our country possess great abilities which can be properly utilized by creating opportunities in the IT fields.

He said the development of modern economies also depend a lot on IT as its usage can enhance the performance of almost every sector of economy by improving business processes, cutting costs and increasing productivity. He said if Pakistan has to catch up with the world, promotion of IT is the best way to move fast in that direction.

The delegation members said that IT industry in Pakistan has covered a long distance over the last two decades employing over half a million youngsters in different capacities ranging from software developers, hardware engineers, call centre operators and cable handlers etc. and added that it has still great potential to assimilate another half a million youngsters immediately with serious efforts of the government policymakers. 

They said the inadequate and outdated legal framework has been the main hindrance in proper growth of this sector, beside issues of human resource and IT infrastructure and finance and called upon the government to address these issues on priority to reap full benefits from a growing IT sector.

Zahid Maqbool said by tapping full potential of IT, Pakistan can also grab a substantial share in the international IT market and enhance its exports as well. He said USA, Canada, Middle East, Malaysia, UK and other countries have outsourced many functions of their businesses to specialized firms as cost cutting measures and by providing cost-effective services, Pakistan can realize the potential of outsourcing as well.
He stressed upon the government to take measures for enhancing educational enrollment and particularly IT training capacity of the country to promote IT culture and improve the competitiveness of Pakistani products & exports.