Islamabad December 16 2021: Ambassador of Japan to Pakistan Mitsuhiro WADA called on Federal Minister for IT and Telecommunication Syed Amin Ul Haque here on Thursday. During the meeting, the two sides agreed to enhance cooperation in the field of information technology between the two countries.
Talking to Ambassador of Japan, Federal Minister for IT Syed Amin Ul Haque said that Pakistan has great potential in the field of IT and Japan can benefit from Pakistani IT experts. Japanese IT companies can get the services of Pakistani IT experts, he added.
He said that Ministry of IT & Telecom is ready to provide every possible facilities to Japanese companies. Ambassador of Japan said Pakistani youth are able and talented and Pakistan’s IT experts can be beneficial for Japan. He also appreciated the steps of Ministry of IT & Telecom for fulfilling Digital Pakistan vision. Secretary IT Dr. Sohail Rajput and senior officers of Ministry were also present in the meeting.
In a major achievement, Pakistan’s IT exports increased by 39% to $830 million during the first four months (July-October) of the current fiscal year of 2021-22, revealed Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunication Syed Aminul Haque.
In a statement, Aminul Haque said the IT export remittances, including telecommunication, computer and information services have surged to $830 million in July-October of the current fiscal year. During July-October of the last fiscal year IT-related exports fetched $596 million.
“The net exports for the period — July-October — were $630 million which was 75.9% of $830 million in exports,” Haque added.
The net exports were $423 million or 70.97% of $596 million in exports in the same period of last fiscal year.
The minister hoped that IT exports would exceed the target of $3.5 billion by December 2022.
For the July-October 2021 period, Pakistan’s total exports grew 25% to $9.468 billion as compared to $7.576 billion during July-October 2020.
Last year was a disaster for several businesses and economies around the world, however, more money has flowed into Pakistan’s nascent technology sector during 2021 than in the previous six years combined, with investors from the US, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates joining the rush.
The renewed interest in IT services was reflected in the unprecedented investment in tech start-ups in Pakistan during the last year.
By global standards, the sum poured into the country’s start-ups this year — about $300 million, according to Crunchbase and Invest2Innovate data — is tiny. But it’s a record for Pakistan and the funding surge is expected to continue.
A group of young start-ups has made splashy funding announcements in recent weeks. Quick-commerce start-up Airlift unveiled a record $85 million Series B round last month, followed by business-to-business (B2B) venture Bazaar’s record $30 million Series A round.
Last month, Tag, a one-year-old Pakistani start-up that offers banking and financial services, raised over $12 million in what is now the largest seed financing round in Pakistan, and Oraan raised $3 million in the largest seed funding closed by a women-led start-up in the country.
Earlier this month, Udhaar Book, a Pakistani cashflow management services provider for small businesses, raised $6 million (RM24.94mil) in early funding to digitise mom-and-pop stores.
