Federal Minister for IT and Telecommunication Shaza Fatima Khawaja has said the government aims to increase Pakistan’s IT exports to $50 billion, stressing that developing human resources remains the country’s top priority for achieving sustained growth in the sector. Addressing a ceremony at a private university in Lahore, part of the same American Business Forum and LUMS Thought Leadership Session titled “Taking Pakistan’s IT Industry to the Next Level,” she said 100,000 properly trained IT professionals could contribute around $1 billion to Pakistan’s economy, framing workforce development as the single biggest lever available for hitting the export target. She said the government is working with the IT industry to achieve sustained export growth, though Pakistan continues to face a shortage of skilled human resources, with proper training needing to begin at the school level and continue through universities rather than being treated as a problem universities alone can solve.
On the infrastructure side, Khawaja highlighted that fiber optic access has increased by 80 percent over the past two years, with the number of households connected to fiber optic networks rising from 3 million to 5.2 million, a significant jump for a country of roughly 240 million people where fewer than 3 million households had fiber connections previously. She said mobile spectrum availability has also increased substantially, rising from 274 MHz to more than 754 MHz, a figure she said has now surpassed the regional average and is intended to support wider and better quality connectivity as demand for digital services continues to grow. Khawaja added that right of way fees for fiber optic infrastructure have been abolished in the public sector, noting that deploying telecom infrastructure in Pakistan had become expensive and difficult, with the public sector fiber optic fee remaining at Rs36 per metre annually even after 2023, compared to India’s rate of Rs10 per metre.
Khawaja said Pakistan’s IT exports are subject to a tax rate of only 0.25 percent, though she acknowledged that distinguishing between freelancers and employees within the tax system remains a challenge, with income tax on employees at local companies pushing some company payrolls to shift toward freelancing arrangements instead. She identified a lack of soft skills among Pakistani technology company employees as another major issue, pointing to gaps in business communication, contract handling, and awareness of the international financial system, and said the government has launched training programmes focused on business acumen and communication skills to address the gap. The minister also stressed that Pakistan must gradually move from a service based technology industry toward developing product based technology companies capable of creating globally competitive products, repeating the same concerning figures from a national baseline test in which only 0.4 percent of 23,000 computer science students scored above 80 percent and just 4 percent scored above 68 percent across ten employability competencies.
On connectivity specifically, Khawaja said negotiations on satellite internet services are in their final stages and confirmed that a zero internet outage policy plan has been prepared for the IT industry, under which internet connections of IT companies will be whitelisted to ensure continuous availability regardless of wider disruptions. “We will ensure 24-hour internet availability regardless of the circumstances,” she said, adding that there has been no nationwide internet shutdown in Pakistan for nearly two years, with any shutdowns during security situations implemented at the district level rather than across the country, and optic fiber connections left untouched even when wireless services were affected. She noted that 98 percent of Pakistanis access the internet through mobile wireless broadband, making mobile towers vulnerable to power outages a direct source of connectivity loss for the vast majority of users, and said the government’s broader strategy combines workforce development, education reform, digital infrastructure, improved business conditions, and uninterrupted connectivity to help Pakistan reach its $50 billion IT export target.
Follow the SPIN IDG WhatsApp Channel for updates across the Smart Pakistan Insights Network covering all of Pakistan’s technology ecosystem.
