Pakistan IT Tazee, Mohtashim Ahmed

Mohtashim Ahmed, starts off his new blog Pakistan IT Tazee with a commentary on PSEB's recent statement on the state of the software export industry (72 million US$ in software exports)

You have to remember that the PSEB declaration only includes SBP routed software export income.
I believe that unofficially speaking there are atleast 3 players doing more than 20 - 30 million dollars in sw export revenues, 15 - 20 in the 5 - 6 million dollar range and another 30 or so in the half a million to million dollar range. The real un-documented number may be closer to the 200 million dollar or 3 times as large as the officially quoted PSEB number.

Side by side with this you also need to look at the billion US$ local technology industry consumption figure as well as the IT services export component and you may be looking at an interesting and worthwhile market.
The comparison with Isreal is relevant for two reasons. I think when it comes to technology strategy, there is a fair bit that we can learn from technology companies in that region. Isreal technology sector's edge is value addition and niches. Rather than focusing on volume and scalable solutions, the right way to grow the Pakistani tech sector is also value additive niches.

I will go out on a limb again and make a sweeping generalization. The group to blame for any short fall in technology growth or even our lackluster performance is not PSEB. It is technology entrepreneurs in Pakistan. I think there is a lot more work that we can and should have done on technology strategy, marketing, positioning, talent retention, quality, account management and scale. Though we may want to put the blame squarely on PSEB, or some other combination of external factors, we only have to look inwards to realize that its not true.

But I got side tracked. Welcome to the club Mohatashim.