Pakistan finds Good opportunities in Malaysia
Pakistan Times Business & Commerce Desk

ISLAMABAD: Pakistani IT companies need to look towards East in addition to their traditional markets in the US and Europe, given the rapid economic growth taking place in the South East Asian region, said Minister for Information Technology, Awais Ahmed Khan Leghari on Monday.

He was talking to members of a trade delegation here that returned from a three-day trade visit of Malaysia.

In-depth

The delegation comprising eight IT companies selected jointly by the Pakistan Software Houses Association [PASHA] and the Pakistan Software Export Board [PSEB] was in Malaysia at the invitation of the Malaysian Multimedia Development Corporation [MDC]. The visit was arranged by PSEB which has recently initiated a programme aimed at taking trade delegations to strategic locations to promote business relationships between Pakistani IT companies and potential customers abroad.

The Pakistan delegation met with MDC officials and later had one-on-one meetings with a number of MDC-status companies in Kuala Lumpur.

The visit overall was a very useful one, said Ms Jehan Ara, President of PASHA.

“We have made the first point of contact, and some of the companies are close to signing agreements, which is an excellent progress,” she said.

Role of Delegation

The Minister highlighted the role that trade delegations can play in enhancing the exports of IT and IT-enabled services from the country. “Malaysia too is finding that a number of back office functions can be performed at lower cost and better quality in Pakistan, and hence Pakistani IT companies should look towards Malaysia and Singapore as a source of long term business,” he said.

Mr. Leghari was of the opinion that even in this age of email and video conferencing, nothing compares to face-to-face meetings, particularly when making the first contact.

MoU Signed

The Pakistan Software Export Board and the Malaysian MDC signed a memorandum of understanding for further collaboration in the field of information technology in October 2002 on the occasion of the visit of the then Malaysian Prime Minister, Dr Mahathir Mohammad to Pakistan.

The MoU also came under discussion during the recent visit of the trade delegation and the two sides agreed to revise the MoU based on the results achieved so far.

Malaysia offers state of the art technology infrastructure in the shape of the Multi Media Super Corridor and the Multi Media University, where cutting edge research is being conducted in the field of graphics and animation.●