Ignite holds meet-up in Lahore to discuss bumping up IT, ITeS exports

 

LAHORE: Ignite - National Technology Fund organised an interactive event with the information technology (IT) industry here to gauge the feedback on a proposed roadmap to enhance Pakistan's exports of IT and IT-enabled services (ITeS).

The latest meeting follows up from similar ones conducted earlier in Karachi and Islamabad.

Ignite is reaching out to the IT industry for input on policy-level decisions to boost the IT & ITES exports, human resource development, the quality of internet connectivity, and proliferation of e-commerce through the development of local e-commerce platform, as well as to mitigate gaps between academia and the related sector.

The non-profit organisation is doing so in collaboration with the Pakistan Software Export Board (PSEB), under the auspice of the Ministry of IT & Telecom.

"We want to ensure that the IT industry's views are carefully considered and reflected in the proposed roadmap to make IT the largest export sector in Pakistan in five years," Yusuf Hussain — the CEO of Ignite — said in his address to the attendees.

PSEB Managing Director Syed Iftikhar Hussain Shah said, in addition, that his organisation has always been forthcoming to facilitate the IT industry to bump up its exports and help resolve operational and administrative issues at the government level.

It is important to note that Anusha Rahman — the Minister for IT & Telecom — puts special emphasis on improving the exports of IT & ITES in order to help the local IT industry emerge as one of the leading sources of foreign exchange and job creation.

The first in the series of meetups was conducted in Islamabad to discuss a training program for one million freelancers to hone digital skills, as well as start-up and cottage commerce portals in Pakistan.

Following the success of the three events, another session is slated to be held soon in Peshawar.