Wednesday, November 03, 2004

"Pakistan Now a Hot Spot for IT Outsourcing"

A dose of positivity by Anthony Mitchell who says, "Americans who have worked in both Karachi and Mumbai report that there is no discernable difference in the safety and security situation in both cities." The story is positioned to give Pakistan a green light in outsourcing and I've emailed the author asking for his inspiration in writing it.

Here's the real catch: "The biggest boost to Pakistan's efforts to break into the global IT marketplace came on September 28, when India's finance ministry announced an income tax of more than 36 percent on foreign firms with software, R&D and customer service operations in India. This tax proposal had been in the works since the beginning of the year and is expected to prompt U.S. firms to follow GE's lead in selling off assets in India."

8 comments:

Zunaira said...

True, a disclaimer we should have inserted at the end of the article. Everything is in quotations Merlinx so those aren't spider's views. The sources are sitting right at the top of each quote. Thanks for the tip. Glad you enjoyed your 5.

Zunaira said...

Few issues to consider here for all of you.

a) The purpose in reproducing blog posts/comments is to draw more traffic to the blog. This is not a magazine policy to copy everything off the blog. Certainly if the momentum on this blog continues, we can formally decide how best to compliment the blog in our print version.

b) This is no private blog. Comments here ARE for everyone's eyes. If you've reached this far, you would know what kind of a reader/audience is likely to read you. The same applies to the magazine's readership. Dress up or dress down is in your hands :~)

c) For financial compensation, you should think about writing an article--that's what we pay for ;~)

Zunaira said...

LOL! If you're going to start sending lawsuits to Spider for quoting you off a public+spider blog, you can very well rest assured, the existing editorial staff will know their rights well. Not a bad idea, though. Cheers!

Zunaira said...

Isn't it great how the media can be held accountable for everything--but simply nothing can be done for other institutions in this society? I wonder whether the government and corporations can be convinced to start open forums--even blogging? ;~) I think I'm on to something here. Pipe dreams.

Zunaira said...

Yo Merlinx, you miss my point by a mile. We both see the same thing: the Media can and must be held accountable. Give this member of the Fourth Estate credit for knowing her theory and practice ;~)

So...the point was, one wishes the govt/bureacracy/corp sector too could capitalise on new media.

Zunaira said...

When the impact of 'mass media' first shook society [at the start of the 20th century], scientists and sociologists took note. They dubbed journalists as one of the important 'pillars of society': executive, legislature, judiciary and the newest addition being mass media. Ideally, the mass media--the fourth estate in the society--'protect public interest' and act as watchdogs. Recent literature acknowledges theoritical and practical flaws with such an fantasy approach.

Anonymous said...

Outsourcing IT services is big in asia particularly southa asia. Unfortunately India is a direct competent and is playing high with success. Just go to www.LinuxPakistan.com and then visit www.LinuxIndia.com, u'll see the difference. With a economic growth of 7%, they are set to rule. The odd couple of Sonia Gandhi and Singh are targetting IT and they are doing it quite well.

Anonymous said...

Reality Bytes

http://www.dawn.com/2006/02/06/nat5.htm

ISLAMABAD, Feb 5: Pakistan Software Export Board (PSEB) failed to achieve the target of increasing exports by at least $50 million in 2004-05, an official source told Dawn.

The Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication had assigned certain goals to the board and one of the major targets was to increase the country's export by at least $50 million during 2004-05.

Though the PSEB bosses claimed that the total exports through IT and IT Enabled Services (ITES) from July 2004 to May 2005 were $44.73 million, there were no details to substantiate this claim, the source said.
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However, the government officials still believe that the bureau had furnished a misstatement to the government showing “fake” performance.

The bureau failed to achieve the target, the source said, due to mismanagement, highly-paid contractual appointments at higher level without given target or job description and lack of maintenance or complete database of IT companies and internal control
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VinD