KARACHI: Pakistan’s IT exports surged by 39% to $830 million in the first four months of the current fiscal year (July-October) of 2021-22, according to Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunication Syed Aminul Haque.
Aminul Haque said in a statement that IT export remittances, which include telecommunication, computer, and information services, increased to $830 million in the current fiscal year’s July-October period. IT-related exports garnered $596 million from July to October last fiscal year, he noted.
“For the period of July to October, net exports were $630 million, or 75.9% of total exports of $830 million,” Haque noted.
In the same time previous fiscal year, net exports were $423 million, or 70.97 percent of total exports of $596 million.
By December 2022, the minister hoped that IT exports will have surpassed the $3.5 billion objective.
Pakistan’s overall exports increased by 25% to $9.468 billion in July-October 2021, compared to $7.576 billion in July-October 2020.
Despite the fact that last year was a disaster for many businesses and economies around the world, more money is expected to flow into Pakistan’s fledgling technology sector in 2021 than in the previous six years combined, with investors from the United States, Singapore, and the United Arab Emirates joining the rush.
The increasing interest in IT services was reflected in Pakistan’s record-breaking investment in IT start-ups last year.
The amount invested in the country’s start-ups this year — around $300 million, according to Crunchbase and Invest2Innovate data — is little by global standards. However, this is a new high for Pakistan, and the inflow of funds is projected to continue.
In recent weeks, a clutch of new start-ups have announced big investment announcements. Last month, Airlift, a quick-commerce start-up, announced a record $85 million Series B round, followed by Bazaar, a business-to-business (B2B) venture, which announced a record $30 million Series.
Tag, a one-year-old Pakistani start-up that provides banking and financial services, raised over $12 million in what is currently Pakistan’s highest seed financing round, while Oraan raised $3 million in Pakistan’s largest seed financing round by a women-led start-up.
Udhaar Book, a Pakistani supplier of cashflow management services for small companies, earned $6 million (RM24.94 million) in seed investment earlier this month to digitise mom-and-pop shops.