KARACHI, June 14: Only 323 out of total 664 (SWHs) registered houses are operating, while 211 are closed. As many as 86 are not traceable because of wrong addresses or shifting to other places, whereas 34 have changed their business or not doing software development business.

These are the findings of a ‘census of software industry and related services of Pakistan’, conducted by Federal Bureau of Statistics (FBS), Statistics Division, in May 2002.

According to Khalid Siddiqui, Director, FBS — of 323 SWH, which are operational, 278 (86 per cent) have responded, whereas 45 (14 per cent) refused to provide information. Among 278 SWHs, 202 (73 per cent) had responded to all questions and provided all relevant information whereas 76 houses (27 per cent) had not responded to very important questions like employment cost and earnings from software development, local as well as exports.

Out of total 278 SWHs, 245 are local and 33 are subsidiary. Almost 50 per cent of the subsidiary (16) are located in Islamabad, 30 per cent at Lahore and the remaining are in Karachi.

Of total 278 houses, 212 are operating only in the country whereas 66 also have overseas branches. Of the total SWHs covered, 250 are registered with one or more organizations, whereas 28 are not registered with any organization and 50 per cent of un- registered software house are in Lahore. Pakistan Software Export Board has highest number of registration with 214, followed by 66 by PASHA, 47 by State Bank and 39 by others.

There are 9,585 personal computers available with 278 SWHs, on the average 34 PCs with one house. The census reveals that only 17 software houses (six per cent) have achieved ISO-9000 certification.

According to the census, there are 8,527 persons employed in 278 SWHs in the country, of these 90 per cent are male and 10 per cent are female. About 94 per cent (8,022) are employed on full time basis and remaining six per cent on part time basis. The highest number — 2,438 (29 per cent)— are programmers, whereas, about 13 per cent are employed as executives and project managers.

There are 85 Ph Ds employed in the software industry, 44 are M Phil, 30 per cent of the employed persons are master degree holders and 42 per cent are graduates.

Only 115 SWHs have indicated their software export earnings whereas, 87 SWHs reported that they are not doing software export.