Connect 2011 was inaugurated at Karachi Expo Centre on Tuesday. Speaking on the occasion, managing director Pakistan Software Export Board (PSEB) Zia Imran said that Pakistan has exported $750 million software solutions last year. PSEB is facilitating software houses to expand their capacity to further boost software exports, he noted.
He said that the Board will launch its incubator programme from Karachi today (Tuesday) and two more centers will be opened in Lahore and Islamabad . PSEB has invited expression of interest from software companies and initially six companies will be selected for this project to start with, he remarked.
Imran urged the national companies to buy software applications from local software developers instead of looking for foreign software solution companies. Pakistani software houses are selling their solutions to world’s leading organizations like New York Stock Exchange and other countries.
MD PSEB also advised software companies to develop “Urdu Nastaleeq” script for cellular companies.
Chairman Pegasus Consultancy Aasim Siddiqui said that ICT professionals from more than 100 companies representing China , UAE, Hong Kong, U.K, U.S.A, India , Romania and Pakistan will be showing the state of the art technology and solutions.
He said that for the first time students from leading technology universities have been provided a chance to show their talent at “knowledge village”. These universities were selected with the help of Higher Education Commission (HEC), he added.
They included NED University, SZABIST, Bahria University, Usman Institute, Allama Iqbal Open University, Institute of Business Technology , University of Gujrat , Indus Institute, NICE Newport Institute, University of Balochistan and Fatima Jinnah University . Later, the minister visited various stalls at the exhibition.
