IT Policy of Pakistan 

Thus, the government, as the main facilitator, enabler, and promoter of the IT sector , has evolved an effective national IT Policy and Action plan that clearly caters to the needs of nurturing the industry and is responsive to the dynamic forces of change that can affect in future growth. The private sector is being brought into the mainstream as the main driver of growth. The guiding theme for the policy is that ‘the government shall be the facilitator and enabler to encourage the private sector to drive development in IT and telecommunication ‘. The one single element has galvanized the entire Pakistani IT community to participate in various dialogues and eleven Working Groups meeting over the last four months to devise a comprehensive Policy an Action Plan document.

The vision of the policy is to harness the potential of information technology as a key contributor to the development of Pakistan and the broad –based involvement of the key stakeholders is as must for its sustainable development .Core IT policy strategies have been proposed under several focus areas and some of the lead recommendations in each area are as fellow

(1) Human Resource Development:

Human Resource (HR) development is imperative for the local IT industry to position the country as an important player in the international IT market. Under the HR Action Plan, a large pool of academically as well as technically skilled IT manpower would be developed to meet the local and export needs. The policies accordingly envisage the establishment of four new IT universities. A major portion of the fund under the It action Plan would be dedicated towards HR development initiatives.

(2) Infrastructure Development:

The local IT industry requires a class enabling infrastructure. An exercise for deployment of this infrastructure would be undertaken and a series of IT parks and incubators across the country could be established. These parks will be upped with modern facilities and matchless incentives, to provide a one- stop shop for prospective investors in the IT industry. Telecom infrastructure would be modernized to carry broadband access in the backbone and local loop. Others steps include the establishment of IT boards in Provinces (expect Punjab where it exit already) , increasing tele density and the introduction new technologies such as wireless local loop for data and cable internet.
Software Industry Development :

Software development is a high growth industry and forms a major segment of he vast IT market and will continue to do so in the future. Integrated efforts to develop software industry with focus on exports (in addition of the local market) would be undertaken. This would include encouragement of local software houses to participate in government projects, local content development .Urdu and regional language software development promotion of software exports through establishment of international marketing network. Special bandwidth rates for software exporters, encouraging joint ventures, hiring of international consultants for global business development and fiscal and regulatory incentives for software exporters through the State Bank of Pakistan.

Hardware industry Development :

The policy recommendations in the area of hardware industry development do not seek to initiate aggressive competition with the developed countries. Rather, they focus on developing the areas that are within Pakistan’s reach, in term o technology and resources and in which the country could have a competitive advantages.