Page 2 of 2 Pakistan's IT industry takes
off By Syed Fazl-e-Haider
back-office operational and
financial accounting services for En Pointe
directly, as well as back-office support for
various US customers under a contractual
arrangement with Premier BPO Inc, a variable
interest entity partially owned by En Pointe.
In financial year 2005-06, Ovex was one of
the five companies that contributed the most to
the rise in Pakistan's IT exports by value.
Together with US firm En Pointe Technologies, the
company has invested more than $2 million in
various IT-related areas in Pakistan. Its
clientele ranges from Fortune 500 companies to
medium-sized businesses in
North America and the United Kingdom.
Elixir Technologies Elixir
Technologies Pakistan is a fully owned subsidiary
of Elixir Technologies Corp, a California-based
company established in 1985. The company has long
been a leading developer of innovative software
for document composition, resource management,
print stream conversion, and document archival. It
specializes in the personalized printing and
customized business solutions for print, archival
systems, and the Internet.
Elixir
Technologies Pakistan has been operating since
1995. It was the first occupant of the Software
Technology Park in Islamabad in 1997. Besides
Islamabad, Elixir also has development labs in
California and Prague. It has more than 5,000
customers worldwide with more than 30,000 packages
installed in 70 countries for clients in such
sectors as banking, telecom, billing, health care,
education and manufacturing in both the private
and public sectors. It has offices in Zurich,
London, Paris, Singapore and Melbourne.
Systems Ltd Founded in 1977,
Systems Ltd (SL) was the first software house in
Pakistan. Since then it has been providing
computing strategies and solutions to business and
government and playing a major role in some of the
largest IT projects in the country. The company
has more than 600 professionals offering a full
range of IT and BPO services to national and
international clients.
In 1996, SL
acquired Visionet Systems Inc of New Jersey as its
marketing arm. Visionet is now a wholly owned
subsidiary providing IT services and technical
support to clients in the US and Europe.
Internationally, the company operates as Visionet
Systems Inc. It is a key player in critical areas
in the US, providing services and products to a
growing list of corporate clients. The company is
running a number of major BPO engagements for
large mortgage companies in the United States,
with six of the top 10 US mortgage companies among
its clients.
The Resource
Group The Resource Group (TRG) is an
investment company that is a leading provider of
capital and operating solutions to companies
active in the business-services sector. It takes
both primary equity positions by providing
liquidity to existing shareholders, as well as
investing directly in companies that could benefit
from additional capital.
TRG Pakistan
raised $37 million from the Karachi Stock Exchange
and an estimated $5 million to $10 million from
private placements. TRG has executed more than 10
international acquisitions and, through its
acquired companies, has more than 3,000 employees
worldwide.
MTBC Last December, a
high-tech IT park was set up at Rawalpindi by
leading US IT company MTBC to accommodate its
business operations in Pakistan. Based in New
Jersey, MTBC specializes in the medical billing
and transcription business and is recognized in
the US as a leading health-services provider. It
has already trained and employed more than 500
Pakistani IT graduates and plans to double its
staff by the end of this year.
MTBC is one
of the fastest-growing medical-billing companies
in the US. Established in 1999, it provides
medical billing and transcription services to
numerous specialties. The company offers 4%
medical billing, free electronic medical-records
software, online access to billing and scheduling
information, and real-time eligibility
verification.
According to Mahmud Haq,
MTBC's head in Pakistan, the company has benefited
from a host of investment-friendly policies
introduced in the IT sector. The company's
business in Pakistan is growing at a fast pace
because of the availability of cheap but
well-trained manpower.
Multimedia Super
Corridor Development Corp A leading
Malaysian firm, Multimedia Super Corridor
Development Corp (MdeC), recently signed a deal
with the PSEB to build IT parks in Pakistan. The
deal envisages the exchange of information and the
sharing of ideas about strategies and best
practices in nurturing the local IT industry and
multimedia companies. The project aims to build
high-tech parks on a BOT basis, besides
facilitating cooperation in other areas including
venture-capital funds and trade in IT services.
Pakistani officials last year called for
Malaysia to help start construction of
long-awaited IT parks, indicating that IT-enabled
office space was a critical requirement for the
development of the industry. The meeting resulted
in a recent visit of IT Ministry officials to
Malaysia jointly to explore feasible projects that
can be accomplished through employing ICT.
Incorporated under the Companies Act of
Malaysia, MDeC is charged with the coordination,
promotion and development of the ICT industry and
selected services in Malaysia. The company advises
the Malaysian government on ICT legislation and
policies to develop Multimedia Super Corridor
(MSC) Malaysia.
A growing
industry Three Middle Eastern and Far
Eastern Internet service providers (ISPs) are set
to launch their operations in Pakistan with an
aggregate investment of $150 million. Each of the
ISPs would invest $50 million to kick off their
service in Pakistan, which is expected to be
started within two years. The ISPs are preparing
feasibility reports and assessing the market. They
plan to start their operations simultaneously at
90 destinations throughout the country.
Pakistan has invested billions of dollars
in producing IT experts. By last June, Pakistan
had 50,000 workers in the IT sector and by 2010 it
will need, according to the PSEB, 232,000 trained
IT professionals. Islamabad's plan to build IT
parks in major cities may further accelerate the
IT industry's growth. The PSEB has proposed a
four-year draft strategic plan, which will
increase the IT industry's size to $10 billion in
2010.
Syed Fazl-e-Haider,
sfazlehaider05@yahoo.com, is a Quetta-based
development analyst. He is the author of six
books, including The Economic Development of
Balochistan, published in May 2004.
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