IT Policy of Pakistan

Information technology (IT) has assumed unprecedented importance in the global economic arena. In Pakistan, the present government is according a very high priority to this sector. One of the prerequisites for ensuring sustained growth of the industry, maybe the economy, is the provision of a definite framework consisting of policy, legislative, financial, and operational guidelines, which can provide a stable umbrella for growth.

Thus, the government, as the main facilitator, enabler, and promoter of the IT sector, has evolved an effective national IT Policy and Action Plan that clearly caters to the needs of nurturing the industry and is responsive to the dynamic forces of change that can affect its future growth. The private sector is being brought into the mainstream as the main driver for growth. The guiding theme for the policy is that ‘the government shall be the facilitator and enabler to encourage the private sector to drive the development in IT and telecommunications’. This one single element has galvanized the entire Pakistani IT community to participate wholeheartedly in the process and over 200 professionals mainly from the private sector participated in various dialogues and eleven Working Groups meetings over the last four months to devise a comprehensive Policy and Action Plan document.

The vision of the policy is to harness the potential of information technology as a key contributor to the development of Pakistan and the broad-based involvement of the key stakeholders is a must for its sustainable development. Core IT policy strategies have been proposed under several focus areas and some of the lead recommendations in each area are as follows:

Human Resource Development
Human resource (HR) development is imperative for the local IT industry to position the country as an important player in the international IT market. Under the HR Action Plan, a large pool of academically as well as technically skilled IT manpower would be developed to meet the local and export needs. The policy accordingly envisages the establishment of four new IT universities, virtual IT university, national testing and accreditation services and educational intranet, strengthening of existing IT institutes and hiring of faculty from abroad. A major portion of the funds under the IT Action Plan would be dedicated towards HR development initiatives.

Infrastructure Development
The local IT industry requires a world class enabling infrastructure. An exercise for deployment of this infrastructure would be undertaken and a series of IT parks and incubators across the country would be established. These parks will be equipped with modern facilities and matchless incentives, to provide a one-stop shop for prospective investors in the IT industry. Telecom infrastructure would be modernized to carry broadband access in the backbone and local loops. Other steps include the establishment of IT boards in provinces (except Punjab where it exists already), increasing tele density and the introduction of new technologies such as wireless local loop for data and cable internet.

Software Industry Development
Software development is a high growth industry and forms a major segment of the vast IT market and will continue to do so in the future. Integrated efforts to develop software industry with focus on exports (in addition to the local market) would be undertaken. This would include encouragement of local software houses to participate in government projects, local content development, Urdu and regional language software development, promotion of software exports through establishment of international marketing network, special bandwidth rates for software exporters, encouraging joint ventures, hiring of international consultants for global business development and fiscal and regulatory incentives for software exporters through the State Bank of Pakistan. 

Hardware Industry Development
The policy recommendations in the area of hardware industry development do not seek to initiate aggressive competition with the developed countries. Rather, they focus on developing the areas that are within Pakistan’s reach, in terms of technology and resources and in which the country could have a competitive advantage. Major recommendations include the waiver of duties and taxes on the hardware, incentives to reduce the cost of raw material and inputs, encourage and fund research and development in the universities and engineering colleges through faculty chairs, matching grants and focused joint projects. 

Internet

The internet is likely to continue to revolutionize the way people communicate and access information. The basic principles adopted for the Internet growth in the country would be to encourage competition, avoidance of un-necessary regulations, provision of low cost, reliable and broadband Internet access, universal internet access in the areas connected with the telecom network, free internet access for public sector universities and support for the development of national internet content.