ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Software Export Board (PSEB) and IT Ministry organised an interactive seminar for consultation on draft IT Policy 2016 on Thursday. CEO’s of almost 200 IT companies participated in the interactive session. State Minister for IT and Telecom Anusha Rehman chaired the seminar and addressed all the queries posed by the participants extensively. IT Member Syed Raza Abbas, PSEB Managing Director Asim Shahryar, Member Legal Aamena Sohail and other senior officials were also present there. In his inaugural speech, the PSEB MD welcomed the participants and thanked the minister for her generous support and visionary leadership which reinvigorated the whole sector. Asim Shahryar Husain highlighted PSEB’s contributions to IT industry within yester years and also shared future plans of the company. Addressing the seminar, State Minister Anusha Rehman stated that the government is committed to achieving its vision of accelerated digitisation. “We have created an enabling environment for the IT industry and SMEs and large IT companies should come forward to market their products and services internationally to grow IT exports, she emphasised. She mentioned that IT remittances have grown over 41 percent since last year. “The goal of ministry and PSEB is to take IT exports to more than $5 billion by 2020. For this purpose, the PSEB has planned different support programmes including participation in international IT exhibitions, local IT events, meetings with foreign IT visitors, CMMI training and certification, capacity building through internships and trainings, and infrastructure in the form of new IT parks.” The minister emphasised that IT companies should report their foreign remittances under specific State Bank’s code so that an accurate picture of IT exports of Pakistan could be aggregated. She stressed that industry has to reciprocate and collaborate with the government on defining KPIs for the IT sector over the next five years to increase remittances, foreign direct investment and employment generation so that a solid case can be made for tax exemption on exports to FBR and Finance Ministry. She said that IT industry can easily exceed exports of $5 billion over the next five years because of the cost advantage in Pakistan and the big IT talent pool available locally. She focused on the concept of gender balance in the IT industry and mentioned that the ministry has kept a minimum percentage of 30 percent females in all industry support programmes. This was followed by a presentation by IT Member Syed Raza Shah, who talked about different areas of focus which have been included in the new IT policy including infrastructure development, big data, persons with disabilities, e-services, local language content, IT exports, e-governance, entrepreneurship, legislation and human resource development. Later, in a panel discussion, the participating companies termed the session as highly useful learning experience. The minister also directed the PSEB authorities to arrange more interactive sessions in all other metropolitans. PSEB also showed a documentary, it has produced to promote the IT industry of Pakistan, which was very much appreciated by the audience.