SBP allows IT exporters to keep a major piece of their Foreign Exchange Earnings

To encourage IT exporters, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has relaxed up the requirements of keeping up foreign exchange permitting them to hold up to 35% of the exports.

This will allow IT exporters to keep the amount spend on advertisement, promotions, marketing, brand awareness through their marketing teams or third-party contractors.

Pakistani IT companies can also invest and acquire shares in foreign companies. This decision was taken by SBP to support the IT ecosystem in Pakistan. It will also help them boost their revenue creating a rich IT ecosystem in Pakistan.

The decision was made by SBP after receiving feedback from different stakeholders in the IT sector of Pakistan. The Pakistani government has been holding differing meetings with stakeholders in the IT sector to discuss methods of improving the exports of the IT sector.

This is a huge step for the Pakistan IT sector especially the startups which hope to acquire international clients. This should help Pakistan enable the IT sector to become the hub of IT in Asia. The current government is focused on improving Pakistan’s IT exports since the get-go.

The government had previously set a target of $5 billion export remittance via IT and IT-enabled services. The government is expecting the export remittances to reach $1.3 billion at the end of this year alone.

What do you think of the steps taken by SBP? Is there anything more that they should be doing?

News Source: Propakistani
Image Source: Chris Gower