Better IT sector policy urged.

HYDERABAD -- President Hyderabad Chamber of Small Traders and Small Industry Farooq Shaikhani has said that the information technology (IT) had not been given due attention in the country although it was growing all over the world. He urged government to introduce a better policy for the IT sector.

In a statement issued here Tuesday, he pointed out that India's top IT companies were earning billions of dollars and the annual revenue was equivalent to the total debt of our country. He regretted that Pakistan's entire IT sector was not earning $2.5bn and even total exports volume did not cross $30bn-$40bn.

He noted that Pakistan industrial base could not match the revenue earned by India's top six IT companies alone in 2022. He said that the silicon valley of US was the largest in IT sector followed by that of Banglore in India. With 170m population, Bangladesh has export volume of $52bn and with a 5.4m population, Singapore's exports stand at $626bn.

The chamber president stated that Pakistan had only established one software technology park, Arfa, which was insufficient considering our population requirement. He called...