KARACHI, Nov 14: The Pakistan Software Houses Association (Pasha) has signed an agreement with Microsoft, whereby the company will offer a 93 per cent discount on its software development tools.

Speaking at a press conference on Thursday, the Pasha president, Zain I Syed, said that Pakistan’s software industry was very small as compared to India’s IT industry, whose software exports had totalled $8.3 billion last year. “The software exports of Pakistan amounted to $19.1 million. We are hoping to exceed the benchmark of $25 million this year”, he said.

He dispelled the impression that there was any unrecorded export of the software, arguing that the government has given 10-year tax exemption to the software houses so that IT could take roots in Pakistan.

The country manager, Microsoft Pakistan, Jawwad Rehman, said that the agreement would ensure availability of the software tools which would cost the company about $10 million every year.

“In addition, Microsoft will provide training to the IT industry personnel. It will also organise road shows and marketing tasks for the software companies of Pakistan,” he said.

Answering a question, the country manager said that the company had made investments to the tune of $400 million in India.

“That investment was not a one-day thing. Microsoft has been involved in India since the mid-1980s. India is a huge market. The magnitude of India’s software export industry is around $8.3 billion. There are 450,000 certified information technology developers in India.” He admitted that Microsoft’s involvement in Pakistan was merely two per cent of the volume of its engagement in India.

The Pasha president spoke about the constraints under which the software industry operated in Pakistan. “It is not realised by people that the software houses of Pakistan do not have the resources to market their products in a proper manner. They do not have the money to organise road shows etc”.

Talking to Dawn earlier, Mr Rehman said that the piracy of the software was a major problem that the software industry faced.