As the new pro-business government begins its tenure, P@SHA, the trade association representing the IT & BPO sector, is hopeful that some key initiatives will be taken to ensure that the tech industry has the facilitation it needs to achieve phenomenal growth. Speaking at a board meeting, Naseer A Akhtar, Chairman of P@SHA stressed that the government needs to build capacity of the institutions that are responsible for facilitating IT exports. Competent people need to be appointed in organizations like PSEB, National ICT R&D Fund, USF, PTA, TDAP and the Ministry of IT & T. The Boards of PSEB, National ICT R&D Fund and USF must have 50% – 70% representation from industry so that they are efficiently run and effective decisions are made and implemented. Akhtar also emphasized that dedicated Commercial Counselors who understand the IT potential of Pakistan need to be appointed in the top dozen global IT export destinations like New York, San Francisco, Washington, Toronto, Tokyo, Shanghai, Seoul, London, Berlin, Paris, Istanbul, and growth markets in the Middle East and the Far East. Neglect by successive governments over the past 10 years has forced the IT industry to rely only on organic growth. The Federal Government can add impetus by launching large and small scale automation projects on a national scale, said the P@SHA Chairman. These projects must be outsourced to local non-government companies or to joint ventures of local and foreign companies with a stipulation that the JV must also include small companies so that capacity building and transfer of technology takes place.
