International Edition
The News
Saturday, August 5, 2006

IT exports hit $72m
By our correspondent

KARACHI: Pakistan's information technology (IT) industry has been able to achieve exports worth $72 million in the financial year 2005-6 compared to exports of $46 million in 2004-5, a Pakistan Software Export Board (PSEB) statement said on Friday.

"According to statistics released by the State Bank of Pakinstan on July 24,
2006 to Pakistan Software Export Board, there is an overall 56 per cent annual increase in IT exports by Pakistani IT companies," the statement said.

It said the Managing Director PSEB Yusuf Hussain appreciated the efforts of the ministry of IT and telecom and congratulated the growing industry on this achievement. He gave due credit to all the stakeholders for the success and promised them continued support from the government through PSEB, added the statement.

"The government of Pakistan has been proactively developing the IT sector for
the last few years," it said. "The incentives include tax exemption till 2016, establishment of IT parks with low rent, foreign ownership of equity invested in IT and 100 percent repatriation of profit allowed to IT companies."

It elaborated major spending had taken place in hardware consultancy services,
software consultancy services, maintenance or repair of computers, export of computer software and other computer services.

The maximum contribution to these earnings had come from computer software
export, accounting for 63 percent of the total exports, with an overall increase
of 44 per cent compared to computer software exports last year, it added.

"The top five companies that have contributed the maximum share to IT
exports are Netsol Technologies, Ovex Technologies, TRG Private Ltd, Systems
Private Ltd and Elixir Technologies," said the PSEB statement. 

Elixir Technologies Corporation maintains a substantial software engineering, sales, and technical support operation from its offices in Islamabad, Pakistan. A US corporation based in Ventura, California, Elixir also has offices in London, Prague, and Kuala Lumpur.