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Islamabad: Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif has directed the Ministry of Information Technology to present a comprehensive plan for achieving the annual export targets required to surpass the $30 billion mark in the coming years. This follows the ministry’s success in meeting last year’s export target of $3.8 billion.
“We are taking priority-based measures to digitize Pakistan, accelerate economic growth, and align the economy with modern requirements,” said the Prime Minister.
“To increase IT exports to $30 billion, a complete digital ecosystem and supporting infrastructure are being introduced,” he added.
The Prime Minister instructed the National Information Technology Board (NITB) to reorganize its core infrastructure and recruit the best human resources from the market.
He appreciated the establishment of centers aimed at empowering youth, particularly women, for self-reliance in the IT sector.
“With the implementation of e-Office, paperless governance in government offices is saving both time and resources,” the prime minister noted.
He highlighted that the Digital Youth Hub is enabling thousands of young people to secure respectable employment.
“We are equipping our youth with IT education and skills so they can compete internationally,” he stated.
The meeting, chaired by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, was held today in Islamabad to review NITB’s restructuring and the initiatives of the Ministry of Information Technology. Federal Ministers Ahsan Iqbal and Shaza Fatima Khawaja, Prime Minister’s Coordinator Musharraf Zaidi, and other senior officials attended the meeting.
The meeting was briefed that, due to the ministry’s initiatives, Pakistan’s IT exports grew by 19% in FY 2025, crossing the $3.8 billion mark. Additionally, the number of freelancers in the country increased by 91%.
Under the National Incubation Center, 386 new startups received support, 14 were sent to global platforms, and 40 e-Rozgar centers were established in 26 cities across the country. Four Pakistani teams ranked among the world’s top 50 at Black Hat MEA, and investment deals and MOUs worth $700 million were secured.
A total of approximately 315,000 students received professional IT training, including 115,000 women, to ensure equal growth opportunities for females in the tech sector. Support was provided to 130 women-led startups through the National Incubation Center, and special training centers for women were also established nationwide.
The meeting was informed that 2,200 federal government officers and officials were trained, while around 3,000 students received training in cybersecurity.
Regarding governance improvement through digitization, as per the Prime Minister’s vision, the meeting was informed that the Pak-App helped collect Rs6.2 billion in taxes. E-Office implementation has reached 98% in federal government offices, and 51 new systems have been introduced to improve governance.
In the telecom sector, the ministry’s initiatives enabled over 580,000 people to gain 4G access last year. The total number of telecom connections exceeded 200 million, with one million new internet users, leading to a 24% increase in internet usage.
On NITB’s progress, it was reported that work is underway, at the final stage, on designing a new system aligned with modern requirements. Currently, NITB is working on over 179 websites, 31 mobile applications, 113 portals, and 57 consultancy projects.
The NITB restructuring focuses on enhancing user experience, accommodating future changes, building modern infrastructure, improving governance and service delivery, and strengthening cybersecurity, risk management, research, innovation, and workforce capacity.
The prime minister directed that all initiatives must be completed within their set timelines and instructed the presentation of a plan with annual incremental targets to raise Pakistan’s IT exports to $30 billion in the coming years.
