While Pakistan’s will grow in the future, since it has a lot of potential, in actual fact, at the present time, “delivery on the ground is very poor,” feels Aamir Matin, one of the oldest practicing professionals in the local ICT industry.
Starting his career in the 1980’s, back when IT in Pakistan still meant a more hardware oriented industry, he began as a hardware engineer. After obtaining a Masters degree in Computer Science in Pakistan, he went abroad and returned a few years later to find that the industry has changed from hardware to software. After his PhD, he joined the United Nations and spent the remainder of his career working within public and government organizations, both locally and internationally. He has also worked with Pakistan’s Prime Minister and the federal minister of that time. The experience helped him understand government functions and how the government and IT work together.
While talking to CIO Pakistan, he said that “there are a lot of IT services, but these are not being utilized properly nor are people able to enjoy all the advantages of having IT in the country. Then again, looking at the changing IT landscape in Pakistan from 1980 to present day, the export potential for IT in the country must also be taken into account. In Pakistan, IT export has a promising growth rate, reaching nearly 15-20% per annum. The downside is that while no other industry in the country is growing at such an exponential rate, the government has yet to realize the implications of this fact. Thus far, the typical mindset has been to ensure that more conventional and bigger industries such as the textile industry get more of the required time and effort to guarantee their growth.”
According to Aamir Matin, in the case of Pakistan, “in IT industry, you need 15 software developers, and you have one to two billion dollars, the work can start. To enhance growth of IT industry locally, a lot has to be done. You have a pocket of excellence. NADRA is a perfect example, and it’s the global leader in IT and identification of IT security. It is a vibrant industry, though in terms of country competitiveness and IT growth over all locally, we are lagging behind.”
So does he expect this to change in the future or even during the tenure of the present government? Aamir Matin is skeptical at best because he feels that while it is great to have vision and dream big, our problems lie in an inability to deliver against these dreams. Pakistan is still very weak, has shown no major changes and the delivery here is not exciting. “So, while the grand vision is very seductive, working against it is very difficult and nobody wants to do that.”
And yet, almost contrarily, the IT industry has often been cited as a good investment option as well as an excellent way to rope in foreign investment. The process however, is not without its own challenges. These include a dearth of opportunities, networking and capital. Furthermore, any new product developed by any segment of the IT industry, be it students or a start-up or an established software house, must be world class to make it big. And yet, while agreeing with the truth behind these difficulties, Aamir Matin still maintains “there are people in Pakistan who have succeeded despite all these difficulties.” He feels that, “in the IT industry, you ask for a little bit of trust, hire 20 people, and it is enough to pull foreign investment in the country, which is working well at its end.”
To help them, there are organizations such as P@SHA, operating in the country, that have been pivotal in trying to help overcome these challenges also. Mr. Matin, however, feels that they could do a lot more since IT is already a mature industry and should therefore aim to impact the policy-making level. At this point in time, working towards influencing and making better policies is what matters most. Once the right, supportive policies are in place, it would be easier for individuals and corporations to devise strategies and meet goals. There are organizations set up in Pakistan which try to meet these goals. As a veteran in the industry, Aamir Matin has been associated with organizations like the National ICT R&D Fund. The organization has considerable amount of money that comes from everywhere such as the telecom industry. However, as Mr. Matin shared, the “idea is excellent, but implementation is poor, other industries make money from licensees as well but the ability to execute is not what it should be. The export board is also not up to the level of execution that it should be at; while there are other institutions as well like P@SHA, which can also do much more than they are doing.”
“The industry itself,” he continued, “does not contribute at all, in terms of taxes, many exports are directly without taxes, don’t pay any taxes or contribute to the industry yet get tax breaks. Look at your weaknesses, like industry association and what exactly happens compared to what should happen.”
An industry is not just made of entrepreneurs, organizations and workers; students who provide that influx of fresh blood, fresh ideas, are just as important as any of the other segments. Guiding these new entrants is a task shared by many including organizations like P@SHA or individuals such as Aamir Matin who still loves teaching. He feels that ‘young entrepreneurs should work in the structured environment, understand the industry and then start off their own work, after they know the industry and how things work.’ He adds that he feels this way because universities, be they MIT or any local educational institute, only teach their students very generic things. Consequently, it’s up to individuals to learn from experience and then work towards fixing issues or making money etc.
