The deteriorating socio-economic system of the country is futile to provide employment to the increasing labor force while Information Technology (IT) is one of the areas that could offer enormous opportunities for creating countless jobs.

Yassar Sakhi Butt, President Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry addressing a meeting at ICCI, said that country is facing a number of challenges for its economic revival, therefore, with other initiatives, IT industry should be flourished for technological advancement, generating revenues and reducing unemployment.

He said that it was a healthy sign that IT sector of Pakistan has shown marked improvement and its ranking has gone up last year. However, much more is desired to harness the full potential of this sector, he added.

President ICCI was of the opinion that by tapping full potential of IT, the country could 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.

He said that now a days economies of scale are greatly dependent on IT as its usage could enhance the performance of almost every sector of economy by improving business processes, cutting costs and increasing productivity and emphasized that Pakistan should also think on these lines.

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

Yassar Sakhi Butt said that over the last two decades IT sector has employed over half a million youngsters in different capacities ranging from software developers, hardware engineers, Call Centre operators and cable handlers. He added that it has still great potential to assimilate another half a million youngsters immediately with serious efforts of the government policymakers. 

He stressed upon the government to take measures for enhancing educational enrollment and particularly IT training capacity of the country people to promote IT culture and improve the competitiveness of Pakistani products and exports.