Pakistan's IT exports to Saudi Arabia reach $310m in April

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s IT exports to Saudi Arabia reached $310 million in the month of April, a significant milestone and the highest ever recorded in a single month.

Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC) has played an important role in improving the growth of the IT sector in the past year through investment friendly policy initiatives.

The IT sector is on its way to becoming Pakistan’s largest export market and Pakistan’s continued exports to Saudi Arabia have seen an annual increase of $100 million in IT exports over the past two years.

Additionally, according to data released by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), IT exports have increased by 62 percent year-on-year and export receipts have seen a 1 percent increase over the previous month.

IT sector exports hit a record high of $2.59 billion from July to April of the current financial year, showing a year-on-year growth of 21 percent over the same period last year.

READ: PM Shehbaz calls for increasing Pakistan’s IT exports

Earlier, Prime Minister (PM) Shehbaz Sharif directed the authorities concerned to take practical steps on priority basis to increase Pakistan’s IT exports.

The prime minister issued the directives while chairing a review meeting of Ministry of Information Technology (IT) and Telecommunications.

“Pakistan a lot of potential in the field of information technology, which needs to be fully exploited,” he said, adding that tech industry can support the government in stabilising the economy.

PM Shehbaz appreciated the role played by Pakistani entrepreneurs in promotion and development of the IT sector.

The Prime Minister directed to take appropriate measures to improve the quality of 4G services in the country.