PAKISTAN IT & ITES INDUSTRY-  A TRANSFORMED INDUSTRY

The Pakistani IT & ITES industry today has an impressive story to tell. Much like the successful startup that one would have not heard of a few years ago but all of a sudden it is the talk of the town. And then you would wonder: why didn’t I see that coming?

$2 BILLION ESTIMATED SIZE OF THE IT INDUSTRY TODAY
From its nascent beginnings in the late 1980s, the industry has successfully arrived to a point where its value proposition has been validated over and over again. he largest members are grossing 15-25 million dollars in revenues, and receiving 100 million dollar valuations. Most tech companies are growing in excess of 30% a year annually. The industry as a whole is doing over 2 billion dollars a year in revenue, up from less than a billion dollars a few years ago.

39% GROWTH IN SOFTWARE & SERVICES SECTOR FOR 2007 – 2008
About half of this growth is coming from foreign, software and high end services projects. IBM, Cisco and Microsoft are expanding Pakistan operations aggressively while several startups are now backed by VCs such as ePlanet Ventures, Motorola, Adobe and Innovacom1.

FROM 41% GROWTH IN EMPLOYMENT OF PROFESSIONALS
Current growth rates indicate that the industry will exceed the 11 Billion USD mark within the next 5 years. What other sectors and countries have achieved in 15-20 years, Pakistan’s technology scene is poised to achieve in less than a decade.
Putting it all together, the Pakistani Technology industry is very different from what it was in the early 1990’s. From 4 founding companies in 1994, PASHA’s current membership exceeds 370. From 4,200 employees in 2004, current employment is at 12,000 and rising.

Fast becoming a hub of high performance business, the questions now asked are if growth this year will be 28% or 50%, if there will be enough skilled HR to staff demand, if there will be enough office space available next year.