IT sector exports bring in half a billion dollars in revenue during the first half of FY 2018-19

The exports from the IT sector of Pakistan have reached half a billion dollars mark during the first half of the financial year.

The first half of the financial year 2018-19, which started on the July 1st, has seen IT exports worth more than $500 million, a report from State Bank of Pakistan says. According to the half-yearly statistics made public by the State Bank, Pakistan exported services from the“Telecommunications, Computer, and Information Services” sector standing at a total value of $540 million as opposed to $520 million from the same period in last year.

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The IT and telecom service sector makes for the second highest value of exports after the Government Goods and Services sector which speaks of the high potential this sector has. The IT exports were able to cross the one billion dollar mark during the last financial year and it was expected that the growth would continue to increase. The recent stats, however, don’t report significant growth, rather a meager increase of $20 million was observed during the first half of fiscal year.

It should be noted here that these exports amount for all the regulated exports which occurred through the formal channels, who record their receipts with the government institutions. A lot of informal transactions also occur which don’t get reported. The industry veterans from P@SHA and PSEB estimate the total IT services export value to over $3 billion, which although sounds impressive, is quite low as compared to other competing countries like India and Bangladesh, and steps need to be taken to further increase financial activity in the ICT sector.