The IT Industry of Pakistan is famous across the globe because of its talented and skilled individuals who provide their services all over the world but even after being one of the top destinations for outsourcing, the IT industry of Pakistan faces many challenges that hinder its growth and prevent it from reaching its potential. Let’s have a look at the major challenges faced by the IT industry of Pakistan:
Low Quality Of Internet Services
The unavailability and the low quality of internet services are a major challenge for the IT industry of Pakistan. In the past decade, we have seen a huge increase in broadband penetration in Pakistan because of the launch of the 3G and 4G networks in Pakistan but even after that, a huge population is still deprived of quality internet services.
The quality of internet services and internet connectivity needs to improve in Pakistan to support the IT industry. The IT industry of Pakistan holds a lot of potential but it is facing constant challenges that are stopping its growth.
A Huge Educational Gap
There exists a huge gap between the IT graduate skills and the IT industry requirements. In Pakistan, the educational curriculum and educational capacity in ICT are not on par with global standards. The IT industry needs graduates who hold all the modern skills which are required by the international clients but still graduates are being taught old curricula and older technologies. The modern-day technologies should be introduced into the curriculum of all the universities to produce more capable and skilled graduates.
Lack Of Intellectual Property Protection laws
Another problem is that there is a lack of intellectual property protection in Pakistan. In countries like the US, where intellectual property theft is a huge crime, we see their IT industries growing because all the new inventions, ideas, designs, and other things are protected there. In Pakistan, we need to have certain intellectual property protection laws in place and the judicial system also needs to take strict measures against violators to help the IT industry grow and flourish.
Lack Of Legal Framework For E-Commerce
E-Commerce is an important part of any country’s IT industry and in some countries, it is even the backbone of the whole industry. In Pakistan, we don’t have a proper legal framework for the promotion of e-commerce and e-payment systems. In order to prevent online fraud and promote trust between online vendors and consumers, a legal framework needs to be developed which will further promote e-commerce in Pakistan.
Lack Of Technology & IT Parks
In Pakistan, there is also a lack of technology and IT parks. There are as few as 14 IT parks in the whole country of over 220 million people. The government needs to establish IT and technology parks countrywide to promote the IT sector. These IT parks can become the basis where new startups can be formed and new ideas can be brought into reality.
Lack Of Research And Development
There is also a lack of innovative research and development in the IT industry of Pakistan. Research and Development have always been the areas where Pakistanis don’t like to focus and these have always been low priority areas in Pakistan, be it the public sector or the private sector. If there is no research and development in any field then that field isn’t going to strengthen and grow.
In foreign countries we see so much research and development happening in the field of IT that even young graduates are able to develop tools like Word to PDF Converter that can perform interconversion of Word to PDF and PDF to Word in just a few seconds. To promote the growth of the IT sector in Pakistan, measures need to be taken to promote research and development in the IT sector so that this industry can reach new heights.
Lack Of A Startup Environment
There is also a lack of a startup environment in Pakistan which is further hampering the growth of the IT industry. In the past few years, we have seen an increase in the number of tech startups in Pakistan but this is nothing compared to the surrounding countries in the region. The startups in Pakistan usually aren’t able to achieve their goal or reach their full potential because of a lack of support and insufficient funding.
The Government of Pakistan needs to promote startups and attract international investors into the industry to help the startups and also create a pro-startup environment in the country.
These were some of the major challenges faced by Pakistan’s IT Industry. If all these challenges are resolved and the government makes efforts to support this industry then we can soon see IT exports of the country reaching new targets.