Pakistan’s ICT exports witness 35pc increase in six months of FY2022

KARACHI: Federal Minister for Information Amin ul Haque on Sunday said that Pakistan’s information and communication technology (ICT) exports have witnessed an over 35 percent increase during the first half of the fiscal year 2021-22, ARY NEWS reported.

The IT minister said that the ICT related exports reached US$1.3 billion during the six months from July to December 2021 against Rs959 million exports during the same period of the previous fiscal year.

“December 2021 saw a 28.72 percent increase in the ICT exports after it reached over US$251 million as compared to US$195 million exports in December 2020,” Amin ul Haque said and added that December also witnessed an increase by US$30 million from November 2021.

He further shared that the share of information technology exports in the ICT sector alone stands at a whopping US$972 million, which stands upto 74.65 percent share in the total ICT exports.

“Same six months of the FY2020-21 saw IT exports of US$681 million,” the minister said.

It is pertinent to mention here that the country’s exports rose by 25 per cent to $15.125 billion in the first half (Jul-Dec) of the current fiscal year, compared to $12.110 billion during last year’s corresponding period.

In a series of tweets, Adviser to the Prime Minister on Commerce and Investment Abdul Razak Dawood said the export target for the first half of the fiscal year 2021-22 was $15 billion, which exceeded $15.125bn.

In Dec 2021, Pakistan’s exports increased by 16.7 per cent to $2.761 billion compared to $2.366 during the same month of last year, he said, pointing out that the export target for the month was $2.8 billion.

“Early indications are that the growth in imports has started to decrease,” Razak said, adding imports decreased to $6.9 billion during Dec 2021 as compared to $7.9 billion in Nov 2021.

“This is a decrease of USD 1 billion. The import projection for Dec 2021 was USD 6.2 billion,” he maintained.