June 24, 2024 (MLN): Minister of State for IT and Telecommunication Shaza Fatima Khawaja emphasized that the present government is focused on developing the IT sector, praising the roles of the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC) and the Pakistan Software Export Board (PSEB) in increasing IT exports.
The ICT services export remittances surged to $332 million in the month of May 2024, an astounding increase of 40.7% in comparison to $236m in May 2023.
ICT export remittances have surged to $2.925 billion during July 2023 to May 2024 of FY2023-24 in comparison to $2.37bn reported for the same period last year.
Shaza Fatima said on the directives of the Prime Minister of Pakistan robust steps are underway for increasing IT exports.
She said that hefty increase has been made in IT sector budget in coming financial year, adding that this increase in IT exports will be helpful in increase of IT exports.
She said that Rs20bn has been allocated for Digital Infrastructure Information projects in the current budget.
It may be noted that in comparison to previous month of April 2024, ICT services export remittances have increased by $22m (7.1% growth) in May 2024.
Trade surplus of $2.57bn, highest in all Services (87.9% of total ICT export remittances) has been realized by the IT & ITeS Industry during July 2023 to May 2024 of FY2023-24, an increase of 22.31% as compared to trade surplus of $2.1bn during the same period last year.
ICT sector exports of $2.925bn are the highest among all Services (41.02% of total export of services) with 'Other Business Services' trailing at $1.424bn.
