Challenges in IT Industry of Pakistan

This is the part of series of my writing

Part 1

*Challenges to the Information Technology Industry In Pakistan*

Pakistan and its Industry… hmmmmm… Pakistan being the sixth populated nation but on the education wise we are really far behind from the other countries of our region. As I was going through the article on the Internet I get to know that Pakistan has lagged dangerously behind other regional countries in

exploiting Information Technology as a catalyst for economic revival. Yet though in the past 8 years or so the steps have been taken by the earlier governments on the setup of IT industry but still we are lagging behind. We all know that which steps have been taken by reducing the Internet bandwidths rates, Deploying SMEs, students going for PHD’s abroad and coming back. But still we are on the development phase.

As being IT Professional myself , and what ever experience I had and observed that we are very much talented as nation but we are lagging the integration between are educational sectors and industrial sectors. As I have faced this situation by myself. As in 1999 I have graduated from the one of the most prestigious university of my country and when I go for job interviews the person sitting there asked me do you know what is this and when I said never been thought they said then you are of no use , I do ask them what is wrong with me they told me that you didn’t know what we are asking , but I told them and you being sitting in the industry it is the responsibilities of personnel like yours to collaborate with the EDUCATION sectors to help young graduates to learn the leading technologies and guide them what they need to do when they passed out and ready to enter in the market. However I got the chance in one of leading automotive manufacturing of PAKISTAN where I have learned a lot with great zeal. THANKS TO ALMIGHTY ALLAH I got the boss of such a kind who is True Professional , he turned me into one of his kind , HATS OFF TO MY BOSS – THANKS ONCE AGAIN ALMIGHTY ALLAH … He told me that look if you want to be successful in you career do your work with full passion and commitment and never loose your interest in that work , if you loose then all the hardwork which you do will be lost. And learned the good set of practices which are current and being followed in IT Industry and share them with your fellow peers and by the grace of ALLAH I am following his advice , my boss is in Canada now but still I keep bugging him to know what is being followed there and when he told me what is nbeing followed I searched and learned about it and tell my fellow peers too,

I have observed few of the stuffs which I like to share all of you. I feel that the explosive growth of the Internet and the coming tidal wave of E-Commerce still provide immense possibilities for Pakistan to exploit their potential and use these for accelerating its economic revival. As far as I know MCB is the first in Pakistan who exploit these conditions and even went to London Stock Exchange to get registered to become first Pakistani Organization to be registered there. By implementing the Huge investments in the IT side. Do keep in mind that IT is not just used for Personal computers only. It also covers the machines like which tells you the data how much bank balance you have which we used to say ATM Machines . Now after hugs investments in IT side we are getting results of it by the private sectors. And utilizing it as people getting to learn about it day by day its all because of the awareness thing.

I also feel that we are agonizingly conscious of the fact that the hyper speed of change in the Information Technology domain means that the IT year is equivalent to one month in conventional terms. This fact dictates that any meaningful action or decisions for the IT industry in Pakistan has to be implemented immediately. Pakistan and similar countries hoping to exploit the inherent potential of Information Technology must act immediately and decisively to restructure their domestic Information Technology industries to become effective role players within the global IT scenario.

· Any meaningful IT scheme in Pakistan will necessarily have to be a PRIVATE-PUBLIC PARTNERSHIP. Bold but unconventional and strategically corrective actions and decisions are needed because we all that what needs to be and cater down so that we donot get influence by others to implement any sort of decision.

· We need to have such kind of managers with the right mix of vision and managerial competence that help us out to implement the decision (IN THAT AREA WE ARE LAGGING AS BEING PAKISTANI WHICH IS MY OBSERVATION).

· Huge amounts of financing are needed in domestic resources and foreign exchange.

· Above all, the will to prevail will be needed from the government of Pakistan to chart the right course for the national Information Technology initiative and then stay the course in spite of innumerable hurdles which are sure to bedevil the path to success.