PSEB seeks venture capital for IT firms
Thursday, November 29, 2007
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Software Export Board (PSEB) is launching various initiatives to facilitate access to venture capital, strengthening the equity base of IT companies and promoting world class entrepreneurial culture in the IT industry.
The projects are aimed at raising the fast track development and robust growth of the Pakistan’s IT industry. One such Programme, the PSEB’s Entrepreneurship Project has been initiated to provide consultancy, on due diligence, to selected IT companies with the objective of qualifying them for Initial Public Offering (IPO).
Currently, out of over 1082 IT companies in Pakistan, only two companies are listed on the Karachi Stock Exchange. ‘To get more companies listed, as envisioned under the project, PSEB would subsidise its consultancy by 75 per cent while selected companies would bear the remaining 25 per cent of the consultancy fee’, a spokesman of PSEB said in a statement.
In order to facilitate access to venture capital, PSEB would facilitate entrepreneurs in getting venture capital funding through vetting business plans and establishing linkages with Angel, VC, Private Equity, Public and Multilateral funding organisations.
PSEB has also launched an Apprenticeship Programme for creating a pool of skilled resources in Pakistan’s IT industry matching the advanced and specialised international technological requirements.
Under this initiative, IT companies would recruit IT graduates on apprenticeships and later hire them for a period of at least one year. This would allow fresh graduates to follow a career path provided by the participant companies, thus strengthening the pool human capital in the country.
The spokesman also said that a multinational IT company, Bearing Point, has already expressed its willingness to recruit about 100 IT apprentices out of which 46 have already been placed.
Another major project, the IT industry Internship Programme, said the official spokesman of PSEB, intends to bridge the gap between the IT industry and academic institutions, and would help mould fresh graduates into world-class professionals. Some 3100 internees from 205 universities/institutes were placed in the local IT industry and 235 IT departments of public and private sector organisations.