Cyberspace on the subcontinent

Pakistan wants science and information technology to act as the engine to pull other sectors of its economy into the 21st century…

Pakistan wants science and information technology to act as the engine to pull other sectors of its economy into the 21st century. To demonstrate the viability of this idea, Pakistan points to Ireland's rapid rise to the top of the IT class, becoming one of the world's largest software exporters.

Driving this train is Pakistan's soft-spoken science and technology minister, Dr Atta-ur-Rahman, who recently became the first minister from Pakistan to visit Ireland. He made his visit to foster educational and IT industry links between the two countries. "Ireland has made tremendous advances in IT, and I see great scope for co-operation between Pakistan and Ireland," he explains.

Because Ireland is moving up the IT value-added chain, Dr Rahman says it is feasible for Ireland to outsource many operations which can be done more economically in Pakistan. "We plan to link up with Irish companies in software development via transfer operations carried out partly in Ireland and partly in Pakistan," he adds.

Since his appointment in March last year, Dr Rahman lobbied for, and received, a 5,000 per cent increase in funding for science and technology. This funding will provide seven new universities - including a virtual one, two of which are already established. "These are not brick and mortar projects. These universities are being granted charters and are taking over existing campuses," said Dr Rahman.

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National science libraries are also being established along with the largest virtual library in the Third World. Pakistan's ambition to become a high-tech industry centre depends on the quality of its graduates.

With a population of 140 million, most of whom are English-speaking, Pakistan has the advantage that two-thirds of its population are under 35.

Dr Rahman is committed to reversing a trend of emigration and attracting IT graduates back to Pakistan through incentives and programmes to induct them into universities. Academic research will be encouraged through educational programmes granting fellowships of up to $40,000.

Additionally, Pakistan is offering to fund most of the training costs for a prescribed number of graduates in skills tailored to the needs of an Irish or international company. In return, these graduates will work for these companies from Pakistan.

This is just one of many out-sourcing proposals Dr Rahman brought with him to Ireland for discussions with An Taisce, Enterprise Ireland and Irish entrepreneurs.

To entice investment, commercial incentives have been put in place to fuel Pakistan's development into an export processing zone. "We provide a 15-year tax holiday, free repatriation of capital, loans without security against contracts from international companies, and we have abolished duty on computers," says Dr Rahman.

Infrastructural development has been equally swift. "I think we should go into the Guinness Book of Records for what we achieved in the last eight months. From only 29 towns having Internet access, we now have 415. Bandwidth has increased seven-fold, while prices have dropped 15-fold to $3,000 per megabyte per month - by far the cheapest of any Third World country."

National initiatives are being coupled with international business incubators, and a $50 million venture capital fund has been put in place in the US by Pakistani IT professionals. Nevertheless, Dr Rahman does not believe foreign multi-nationals will take advantage of the incentives and then relocate.

"We are planning to strengthen our own IT institutions so they become larger and internationally competitive," he said. Anticipating likely development sectors and placing creative people in research projects should secure Pakistan's long-term IT future, Dr Rahman believes.

"Technology will come like a white knight on a horse to the rescue without painful measures being required," he laughs.