KARACHI, May 7: Sindh Chief Minister Arbab Ghulam Rahim has said that he has directed allocation of 200 acres for setting up an IT city in the metropolis. He was talking to reporters after the inaugural session of the seminar on “Call Centre Investment Opportunities” at a local hotel on Saturday. The day-long moot was organized by the Sindh Information Technology Department.
Dr Arbab Rahim said that if more land was needed for the purpose it too would be made available. He stated that Sindh IT Minister Syed Mustafa Kamal was working on the IT city project.
The chief minister also assured that his government would accord due priority to the IT sector while referring to the interest on the part of investors to acquire land on the either side of the Superhighway from Karachi to Hyderabad for initiating their businesses. He said that the government would provide due encouragement in this respect.
He did not agree to a point that there was any law and order problem here for the initiation of the business activities by the investors. He pointed out that the crimes did occur in every country and this was not an unusual phenomenon here. However, he said, there seemed to be a trend here to highlight such things that affect the image of our country.
Earlier speaking as the chief guest at the seminar, the chief minister said that Pakistan had the potential for offering the greatest opportunities in the global Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) market.
He pointed out that the information communication technologies in the present era were considered as the centre of economic and social transformation across the globe. This upswing in IT had provided tremendous impetus to Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) among the leading business companies to achieve significant profit-oriented growth in their business operations, he added.
Arbab Rahim said that the global outsourcing had been referred by the researchers as the trend of the decade and Pakistan was well cognizant of that scenario. In Pakistan, BPO sector was not yet matured as compared to neighbouring regions in South Asia, he said, adding that this sector has been taking long strides to achieve sustained and speedy growth.
He stated that the government had provided several incentives to investors in BPO sector and because of those incentives an increasing number of foreign IT companies had chosen Pakistan for outsourcing their operations.
The chief minister said that Pakistan had the potential for offering the greatest opportunities in the global BPO market and that ‘We have been able to offer all the pre-requisites of success to the Business Service Providers (BSPs) to enable them to concentrate on marketing their services abroad and get due share in international BPO market’.
He informed that the government would use all its resources to provide the required infrastructure to augment the growth in the BPO sector.
Arbab Rahim said that it was pertinent to note that the cost of running a call centre in Pakistan was among the lowest in the region and that establishing a call centre, particularly in Karachi, was quite a feasible proposition keeping in view the relevant parameters such as global competition, fibre optic connectivity and skill availability in the market.
Surprise visit: The chief minister on Saturday paid surprise visit to the Government Girls Secondary Intelligence School and Government Primary School, Sultanabad, and took serious notice of violation of relevant rules.
Dr Arbab noted that most of the students, teachers and other staff of the schools were leaving 20 minutes before the scheduled time.
The chief minister, however, directed the officials concerned to ensure full compliance of school timings by teachers, students and other staff.
He also ordered action against the teachers who had already left the school early.
