ISLAMABAD: The largest IT solution provider in the country has said that Pakistan has to focus on local software development, but for that the country has to facilitate the international companies by having consistency of policies.
“The excellent human resource usually moves out of the country either seeking jobs or to work as self-employed,” Saqib Ahmed, managing director System Analysis Program Development (SAP) said.
Talking to the media here on Wednesday, Mr Ahmed said that there was a strong voice across the world regarding laws that regulate the Cloud services.
The cloud service is taking a predominant role in our modern world, and the businesses are acquiring their services instead of maintaining their own data centers and incorporating it with their IT operations.
SAP is a German multinational software corporation that develops enterprise software to manage business operations and customer relations.
However, Mr Ahmed said that various geo-political crises were creating new challenges for the cloud businesses.
“The demand was rising that the cloud service providers and the data center operators have to apply the laws of the country that has placed its data instead of the laws of the host country, to ensure that any war like situation would not affect their data,” he said.
Like many countries in the world, the relevant authorities in Pakistan too keep a watch on the employees and top management of the companies that maintain data, of public and private sector entities.
Pakistan had also requested SAP to shift the data of Pakistani companies from the Gulf region to China, as there were many Indian nationals at key positions in the Gulf region.
Currently, more than 90 percent of the public and private sectors in Pakistan are using SAP solutions for streamlining their operations.
SAP has more than 230 million cloud users, more than 100 IT solutions covering all business functions.
A Cloud based solution helps organizations to save in financial terms, reduce human error, and allows for better streamlining and coordination, compared to a non-cloud-based solution.
Regarding development of IT based solutions in the country, he said that the government has to focus on local software development and be proactive.
“The two essentials are consistency of policies regarding taxation and other facilitations, as the IT sector has seen tax waiver – imposition of taxes and waiver again, this confuses the international players,” he said.
The second important step needed to be taken by the government and the state bank was an easy method to make payments to vendors abroad and repatriate profits.
“But the government has to consider the results of such policies and international companies will invest to develop IT solutions in Pakistan,” he added.
“The authorities have to understand that talent is not an issue in Pakistan – but lack of opportunity is the real issue.”
According to him, as part of its plans for 2022, SAP has announced plans to leverage cloud computing technology in Pakistan in line with its mission to support and accelerate digital transformation in the country.
SAP’s cloud offerings enable companies to optimize their end-to-end processes and innovate with new capabilities in the cloud while reducing operating costs, improving productivity, and unlocking new opportunities for growth.
