Alveena Ahmad
IT Exports Surge: A Closer Look at November 2023 Statistics
During the first five months (July-November) of the current fiscal year 2023–24, export remittances for IT and IT-enabled Services (ITeS), which include computer services and call center services, increased by approximately 6%. At $1.152 billion, they remained higher than $1.088 billion during the same period of the previous fiscal year.
Steady Monthly Growth and Yearly Comparisons
According to official data, month-over-month (MoM) ITeS export remittances increased by approximately 9% in November 2023, staying at $259 million as opposed to $238 million in October 2023.
Export remittances rose by about 11% year over year (YoY) from $233 million in November 2022 to this amount.
Insights into ICT Export Remittances
The ICT export remittances, which comprise information, computer, and telecommunication services, were $2.597 billion in the fiscal year 2022–2023 as opposed to $2.619 billion in the fiscal year 2021–2022, representing a negative growth rate of about 1%.
Unveiling the IT and ITeS Export Strategy
The first-ever IT and ITeS export strategy was recently unveiled by Dr. Umar Saif, the acting federal minister for telecommunications and information technology, with the goal of increasing Pakistan’s IT exports to $10 billion over the course of the next three years.
According to the strategy, the country could boost its exports to $12–15 billion USD.
Key Components of the Export Strategy
Introducing the plan to boost ICT exports, Dr. Saif stated that current IT exports are $2.6 billion, and by adding 200,000 more skilled workers to the current IT workforce, exports will reach $5 billion.
The establishment of The Pakistan Startup Fund will raise the total volume of IT exports by an additional $1 billion to help meet the target of $10 billion. Additionally, allowing IT companies to keep dollars (dollar retention facility) will increase exports by one billion dollars.
