28 remarkable reasons to be proud of Pakistan’s IT industry and its talented people.

Pakistan is a country where structural weaknesses of the economy has not restricted the technology industry from growing. Pakistan’s economic performance has come against the expectations of critic’s who thought that the country’s economy would crumble down after its independence. Despite adverse initial endowments, our country’s economy has registered an accelerated growth.

IT industry in Pakistan is showing the world that it is bursting with talent.

Just have a look at the facts and achievements of Pakistan’s IT industry, you will feel numb with pride to see the people who are exploiting the untapped resources of our country without complaining for any shortages.

1. More than 25,000 IT organizations are operating in Pakistan and more than 20,000 computer science degree holders enter the market annually. Some of the names are Creanyx Inc, HA Technologies, 3WOGLE Group of companies, Eceleron Communications (Pvt.) Ltd. Etc.
2. According to Nytimes.com Contribution of Pakistan in the global IT sales is $2.8 Billion and $1.6 is just the share that is gained through the export of software and IT enables services.
3. There are more than 25 tech incubators, accelerators, and co-working spaces that are operating in Pakistan. The government funded incubators include Groopic and SMEDA, whereas IBA CEO, and LCE are hosted by Pakistan’s famous academic institutions. DotZero, SEED Ventures, Cloud9, Jump etc. are some other notable companies.
4. Entrepreneurship system in Pakistan is thriving because there are some of the Pakistani’s who have brought a revolution in the technology industry.
5. Netsol Technologies and System Limited are providing high level of quality software products and services globally. It has been working with more than 200 finance and leasing companies in more than 30 countries and provide superior quality IT solutions to businesses.
6. Umar Saif, a Pakistani scientist and entrepreneur is known for his work on using ICT solutions for developing-world problems. He is founder of Plan9, which is Pakistan’s largest incubator and one of the main force behind the IT ecosystem in our country.
7. Jehan Ara, President of Pakistan Software Houses Association, is a motivator, an entrepreneur and a social activist. She has been struggling hard to empower the local communities with the use of information and communication technologies beyond traditional business.
8. Kulsoom Lakhani, is the director of Social Vision, the Venture Philanthropy arm of ML Resources, LLC, an investment firm in Washington, D.C. She is the editor of blog CHUP, which is aimed to break the black and white depiction of Pakistan through new analysis.
9. Khurram Zaffar, the executive Director of LUMS Centre for entrepreneurship in Lahore, is behind number of startups that have succeeded in getting a base from Silicon Valley in order to re-operate through their platforms.
10. In recent years, Pakistan’s gaming industry is breaking the cultural barriers and are producing games that require much less-startup capital. The younger generation is establishing gaming studios that are absolutely changing the definition of games. Great gaming studios which have produced brilliant work in past years such as the title animations of Game of thrones has been produced by Hameed Shaukat.
11. Cricket Companion applications is a game that is known internationally was developed by a Pakistani startup, TriCastmedia.
12. Mir Zafar Ali, a 38 year old visual artist, stood first in the animation category for the Walt Disney Animation Studios for producing a fantasy-comedy animated movie “Frozen”. This movie got the highest ratings in history which made him gain recognition for Pakistan. He received reward for his work in The Golden Compass, Life of Pi, and Frozen.
13. Animator Noveera Masood has done a beautiful work by providing visual effects in the Hollywood movies such as Maleficent, Mars needs Moms, Thor, Jack the Giant Slayer, A Christmas Carol and Transformers 3.
14. Laraib Atta, daughter of a famous Pakistani musical legend, Atta Ullah Khan EsaKhelvi, is also an emerging visual artist from Pakistan. She has provided visual effects in popular Hollywood movies such as X-Men, Chronicles of Narnia sequels, Sweeny Todd, 10,000 BC, Godzilla, ad Gravity.
15. A Silicon Valley startup “Jawbone” has been developed by Hussain Rahman. It is known for creating consumer technology and wearable devices, building hardware products and software platforms. It is making lives of people better around the world by providing them with devices that track their lifestyle and make them healthier. It has been valued for almost $3 billion last year.
16. Swaggable is another Pakistani Silicon Valley startup that has been valued at $20 million.
17. Remote Interview is an application that provides a virtual atmosphere for interviewing software developers. It compares various candidates and saves time of the businesses and companies around the world from the hassle of conducting interviews for tech talent themselves. This startup has received 120% growth in the client base and its 50% of the corporate clients are residing in USA.
18. Pakistan’s ecommerce industry have emerged and shown a reasonable rise in recent years. Many new online shopping trends have been introduced and ecommerce businesses are flourishing such as daraz.pk, pakwheels.com, foodpanda.com, and symbios.pk.
19. Pakistan has become increasing strong in the international freelancing job market. The top freelance market place such as Freelancer.com has ranked Pakistanis on 3^rd for freelancing and 5^th according to UpWork.
20. Pakistan is a country that has great talent and it is not limited to any age group. We have got the youngest Microsoft Certified Profession who is a six year old boy, Hamza Shahzad. He took Microsoft Office Specialist Exam and passed it with extremely good grades.
21. Many internet merchant accounts have been opened in Pakistan that allows business to accept payments through the internet. The state bank of Pakistan has given permission for the openings of such accounts due to the flourishing ecommerce industry. These include TRADEKEY.com, which is considered second largest in B2B marketplace, has 7 million registered customers with over 240 countries.
22. Because of the rising growth in the IT sector in Pakistan, many Pakistani startups are managing to secure funding from local and internal investment groups. These include carmudi.com, lamudi.pk, zameen.pk, and daraz.pk.
23. Today nearly 1.5 billion people are using smart phones around the world, and this is the reason Pakistan has stepped in to meet the ever rising demand for mobile applications. There are many companies that are developing mobile apps for the local as well as international market. Applications are being produced for Android, iPhone which are available of Apple App store, Blackberry App store, Google play, Nokia Store, or Windows phone store. These apps are being produced with almost one third of the cost as compared to America. These include Pepper.pk, Five Rivers Technologies have gained immense popularity with black berry app world. There are many applications that have been developed for the iPhone and are now being recognized worldwide.
24. At Asia Pacific Information and Communication Technology Awards, Pakistan won three gold awards and one silver award in 2015 in Colombia, Srilanka. These awards were based on different categories such as startups, Mobile applications, e-learning, e-health, e-government, supply chain management, financial management, and communications.
25. Inc, which is an American network security company, was founded by a Pakistani American, Ashar Aziz. It provides malware protection and automated threat forensic against emerging cyber concerns. It has been valued at $6.5 Billion in recent years.
26. Hacking is a word that makes everyone uncomfortable but we feel much better when we see the best security researcher belongs to our country. Rafay Baloch, 22, has been a researcher since his college time and has produced publications such as Android Browsing, HTML Security, by/passing client/server side protections such as WAF, encoders.
27. Working hard in the IT industry for 10 years, Farhan Masood has established a million dollar startup company, Soloinsight. This startup is a pioneer of cloud-based global recognition platform named as the Internet of People. It has 110,000 registered users at over 140 various locations in 96 national destinations. Its customer lists includes Tetrapack, Nestle and Pepsico.
28. Under World Startup Report, Pakistan Startup report has been released which shows Pakistani startup market as the most attracted spot for global clients. With the passage of time, Pakistan’s IT market is showing immense potential for growth which is getting the attention of the international market.

Pakistan is a nation that is on the road to progress and advancement. Its talented younger generation has become a key drive for economic development. We can march forward and progress rapidly if we tap the creativity of our young and harness their potential for development.

According to Dr. Irving Moch, Director AMTA and IDA,

“Pakistan, with its highly trained technical labor force, has the where-with-all to accomplish these tasks. Whatever is being achieved today is just the beginning step for a national growth curve that must be goaled if Pakistan is to be among the world’s Technology leaders”.