What Ails the BPO Industry in Pakistan?

#170 by zeemax

It doesn`t rent out it`s nationhood for that `chwanni`.

Is our friend talking about Pakistan here? Because that`s the only country in the neighborhood that has signed up for the WOT for billions of dollars in return. And then there is history to go with it, Zia complaining that US aid was `peanuts` in return for what Pakistan was doing and all that.

Pakis have been trying to climb on the IT bandwagon for a long time now..and have been miserable failures at it...

Fact that pakis can`t tell the difference between reality and their self-deluded version of reality doesn`t help any..

Take a look at this article from 1999..

SITE to establish Indus Technology Park

KARACHI (July 1) : The Sindh Industrial Trading Estate, (SITE) Ltd.
is to establish Indus Technology Park at an initial cost of Rs 150
million at Site Super Highway Estate behind Gulshan-e-Maymar to train
graduates in software and to increase Pakistan`s share in software
exports. The Site Ltd. has earmarked 50 acres of land for the park.

Revealing plan for the Indus Technology Park, Mir Hussain Ali,
Managing Director SITE Ltd. told a Press briefing at a local hotel on
Tuesday that the idea of technology park had been conceived following
the success of such parks in India(paki see, paki do..try to do anyway..), Malaysia and Singapore. It will
provide turnkey solutions to all the software technology needs under
one roof.

Elaborating main objectives of the Indus Technology Park, Mir Hussain
Ali said that it aimed to promote software exports from Pakistan; to
bring Pakistan`s name on the international information technology
(IT) map; and enable the talented youth to develop their skills and
to provide facilities and incentives of international standard to
investors under one roof.

BPO, Medical Services, Telemarketing, whatever is the game of the moment,
Pakistan needs to be there. We are capable. We can provide competition to India in any of the above. Unfortunately, our international image is not commensurate with our true potential.

Lack of a coherent polity, political instability, pockets of islamic extremism & fundamentalism, our failure to isolate groups of jehadi mindsets, the western world`s misplaced and exaggerated perception of the whole of Pakistan as Terror/ Taliban connection are some of the reasons why things are not happenin on the scale of magnitude.

Re: # 173
You have point.
I read and heard many reputed doctors have large % of foreign patients. Many middle eastern citizens are visiting pakistan for medical services including disability theropis. I this that type ow work has more value added. Also whole new sector of doctors are coming coming upm specially suited to foreign patients. These doctors are ambitious like IT starters. I think pakistan will be becoming Mecca for foreign patients who can not afford to go to usa of Europe being very costly. Now many dollors are making millions of rupees very year. They do not want to come out say that as it underground economy and they do not pay taxes. Almost all doctors serving foreign clients are far richer than Deshi Tech people. Real rich people never say they are rich. Some have become so reach they do not treat locals unless they are suggest by ``BIG REFERENCES``. Pakistani doctors i Pakistan are making 10 times money than tech coolies.

BPO is stupid. We don`t need it in Pakistan.

zee please. many ppl c things that arent there such as ufo`s

#168 by DrDr

It`s all there to see for those who have eyes to see. If you can`t, I cannot help you. Nothing secret about it, but you guys` eyes are behind thick shades which blind you.

#167 by stuka

Ok I`ll risk a response to you even though you`re no better than your colleagues I`ve advised to fcuk off.

China `manufactures` that chwanni. It doesn`t rent out it`s nationhood for that `chwanni`.

for a country NOT trying to get into this whole IT fad, Pakiland is sure spending a lot of money on lipstick-on-a-pig consultants..

Ministry to hire int`l marketing consultant

MONEM FAROOQI
LAHORE - The Information Technology Ministry is planning to hire an international marketing consultant for promoting Pakistan as a destination of choice for IT outsourcing, it is learnt.
Talking to The Nation on Wednesday, the ministry officials said that Pakistan Software Export Board (PSEB) had finalised the term of references including devising the long and short term methodology for promoting Pakistan’s soft image abroad.
The officials said that the short-term strategy included the projecting aims for launching campaigns over next two years for the international and local media.
The officials said that Pakistan IT industry had expertise in major areas of IT and ITeS service including retail banking & financial products, medical transcription, animation & graphics,mobile content, document management, enterprise resource planning software (ERP) and utilities and insurance applications, which would be the focal point of the activities.
The officials said that the project aimed to promote IT industry skills of Pakistan in these countries by launching various campaigns. They said that the campaigns might be covering generic media channels but the core strategy of the PSEB media plan was to approach the industry specific channels locally as well as globally.
The long term strategy would be encircling the projects show-case / market the Pakistan IT sector in a favourable light in the local and international markets, which is directly connected with the primary objectives of enhancing the exports of Pakistan IT sector.
Talking about the strengths, the officials said that international leaders like Bearing Point, NCR Teradata, Mentor Graphics & ZTE had been marked to locate their development and consultancy centre in Pakistan. They said that an IT work force of 90,000 with good english and people skills growing at almost 20,000 a year, more than 100 ISO certified IT companies with over 20 undergoing CMMi Certification.
The officials said that a reliable digital telecom infrastructure with backup and reliable energy and transport networks had been available with Pakistan with an ambitious program of world class IT parks with rental rates under $ 1 per square foot per month.
The officials said that a prosperous economy that offered lucrative domestic opportunities and attracting increasing amounts of international investment needed a steadily improving risk rating and tightening environment for intellectual property protection.
The officials said that a competitive edge in terms of software quality, HR and security was the Pakistan’s strength besides that a sever shortage of quality workforce in neighbouring countries like Philippines, India etc. which at one time were considered to be best outsourcing destinations. They said that the salaries of the IT workforce in these countries also increased dramatically and the trend was still on the higher side. Security and quality are also raising concerns that give Pakistan an edge over other players in the sector, they added.
However, the officials said that perception, average network infrastructure and political instability, had been the weakness for the Pakistan. They further said that despised the weakness, the country got the opportunities as number of companies abroad had been considering Pakistan as an upcoming destination of choice, which already had become one of the top players in accounting, medical and telemarketing outsourcing.

So pakis are playing the wage arbitrage with lowly India!!

And seriously pakis..security and quality are your USPs!!! HAHAHA...you guys are sure deluded..

zee, serious abt what? R u basing these on official pronouncements or wishful thinking or inside info thats not publicized?

``
We Pakistanis do not think like that. Neither do the Chinese BTW. We look way beyond the `chwanni`.``

Zeemax, are you kidding? Do you know the margins of soft goods manufactured in China? The Chinese focus literally on the Chawanni...that`s their real profit margin on a plastic hairbrush sold at the local dollar store. The Chinese just happen to make billions of those!!! India is no where in the picture of monetizing those chawannis in manufacturing.

If anything, your rants of Honor etc are the complete opposite of Chinese mentality...look at what Manto said..``It no longer matters whether ABC worships Ghaznavi, Ghauri or Babur... ABC wants to play ball. ``

To paraphrase Deng, it does not matter if the cat is black or white, as long as it catches mice.

#162 i am talkin about rural china .. there are no job guarantees or medical care...in fact things now are much worse for them because whatever doctors and hospitals exist, demand ``fees`` because they want to be rich like their counterparts in shanghai. as for the wait-and-see and sundry hints..it sounds like a geo-strategic militaristic adventure involving nuclear bombs.

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#160 by DrDr

I don`t know if you`re serious. So forget it.

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#157 by jang

Yes there`s no safety net for the coastal special economic zones in China such as Shanghai, Guangdong, Shenzhen etc. But there still is in the rest of China. There are guaranteed jobs, and wage controls, and central planning for essential coommodity prices.

As for your next question, I`m tempted to just say wait and see .. but I`ll give you a hint. You`ll need to look up the rest.

Pakistan does not take half-hearted steps. It goes all the way or nothing. It is running a 4.6% current account to GDP ratio by fully liberalising imports (a step I had opposed before) because it knows where the money is going to come from to meet that deficit.

The world scenario is shifting, and Pakistan has seen that shift. This should suffice.