Historians in Pakistan noted with excitement the dawn of the Information Technology revolution and then cringed with helplessness as it went past us. Universities churned out thousands of IT engineers and programmers. Most of them are now working in sales or local call centers. As the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry made waves in India, changing the lifestyle of people in Bangalore and other cities, people in Pakistan watched with optimism that maybe just this time, we will get some where. But this too did not materialize.
The National Association of Software Services and Companies (NASSCOM) in India points out that “the motivating factors behind making India the great BPO/ITeS destination include strong quality orientation among players, ability to offer round-the-clock services based on the country`s unique geographic location, positive policy environment which encourages investments and a friendly tax structure, which places the ITES/BPO industry on almost equal footing with IT services companies”. By the year 2008, the ITES- BPO sector is expected to employ over 1.1 million Indians, with its sales expected to touch an amazing 21$ to 24 $ billion dollars. Now compare this scenario with Pakistan. Government in Pakistan has given amazing incentives to this sector. The cost of bandwidth has reduced to a very low rate over the last 5 years. We have the same geographic location, positive policy environment and, yet with all that, still in 2007, international companies are (investing in)/discovering new markets in Ireland, Philippines, China and Egypt. Pakistan is nowhere in sight.
