IT sector in Pakistan is still nascent and needs to be patronized for a reasonable time period therefore the government ought to introduce drastic reforms and curtailed the tax rates on computer hardware equipments and accessories in the upcoming budget

Pakistan Computer Association (PCA) in its budget proposal suggested the government to reduce the tax on computer screens and value-added products in order to increase the penetration of IT education in the small cities of the country.

The government should waive GST on computer screens couple with FED and import duties on different equipments, the body said.

The taxes and duties for this important sector of economy must be rationalized and government should announce computer and IT friendly policies in the budget 2011-12 because of the fact that computer and IT industry is considered as backbone of the economy in the countries who are rapidly on the path of progress and development.

The import of used IT equipment has played a vital role in the nation’s development. The imported used and low cost computers are used by   IT educational institutions, middle class and lower middle class students and families. Likewise, hospitals, clinics, departmental stores and all types of small andmedium size business enterprises, even all types of schools, even madrisas depend on used computers due to affordability for the middle and lower middle class.

Used Computer System Imports

The industry is aware of the fact that the used IT equipment is not more than three years old and it still have a functional life of 5+ years and all available software can be operated on these machines and fulfills business and education needs at a very low cost. Thus, resale of used/Refurbished PCs is not only popular in developing countries like Pakistan but also in the developed nations like USA, England, Europe, Canada and Australia are widely using these computers.

According to a conservative estimate, Pakistan can save a huge foreign exchange by encouraging used computers and IT equipment as used computer cost on an average is less than $40 as compare to the cost of new ranges from $300 to $600. Currently there is no indigenous production of IT equipment and its parts in the country. Therefore, import of such equipment by no means is threat to any local industry. As said earlier there are only assemblers, some are small one having one shop and some have big installation, but both are assemblers and nothing is produced in our country.

Computer Usage

Majority of people belongs to middle class and lower strata of the society can not afford a new computer at a price of 25,000 to 45,000/ and they opt for a used desktop PC at an average price of 5,000 to 10,000/-. The laptops market presents similar picture where  average price of a Dual Core new laptop in HP/Dell/Acer is around 45,000 to 55,000/- whereas the same in used is available at a price of 27,000 to 30,000/- and in Centrino technology even more cheaper upto 22,000/-.

We simply cannot ignore the fact that Pakistan is a third world poor country and majority of the people are living below the poverty line and it is not possible for them to afford a new PC. It has been observed that a great number of students and professionals are using these used computers and laptops. The initial users and beginners don’t need a hi-fi computer rather a normal low-end PC works fine for this purpose.

Not withstanding national needs and aspirations, some multinational firms engaged in computer hardware manufacturing are trying to get import of used IT equipment banned to make quick and big money. However, the sitting government ought to consider that any such ill-advised step would result in large public outcry and loss of precious foreign exchange.

The proposal of imposing any type of ban on used IT equipments is absolutely unnecessary as Pakistan is not producing / manufacturing any computer then what industry we are talking about:  there are only assemblers. As a matter of policy we should not look at someone’s personal business or cartel of few companies, rather we should think about the wellness of majority, people at large and national interest.

Curb Smuggling and Afghan Transit Trade

PCA demands that the menace of growing smuggled goods in Pakistan from neighboring countries is also hurting the local business badly, which must be curbed as it discourages local manufacturers as well as documentation of business activities. Thus, it is causing huge loss to the government exchequer.

The duty structure of the goods prone to smuggling should be rationalized so that legal imports could be encouraged. He said that Afghan Transit Trade needs to be strictly regulated as it will help curbing the duty free smuggling of many items back to Pakistan.

The central president of PCA said that government should evolve a proper strategy for broadening the tax net instead of enhancing existing taxes. The ratio of direct tax should be improved to save mitigate the burden indirect taxes which add to miseries of poor masses.

Broadening of Tax Base

Instead of adding any further burden upon already heavily under burdened sectors of the economy, the government needs to broaden the tax base. The government should also curb tax evasion and give incentive to tax payers so that a tax culture could be flourished in the country.

Federal Minister for Information Technology and Telecom, Dr. Babar Awan visited Universal Service Fund Company (USF Co.) office yesterday, said a statement issued by USF.

Mr. Awan’s this visit, as seen by the outsiders, is a ministerial ritual. This is how every new minister visits its ministry offices/organizations.

Company statement said that the minister took interest in the working and projects of USF and asked several questions.

Statement said:

“He laid a lot of emphasis on running ‘People Oriented” programmes while remaining within the rules and structure of USF. He also stressed the need for coming up with out-of-box ideas for implementation of such projects. The Federal Minister offered USF and the Telecom Operators his full support, through parliamentarians or otherwise, in areas where difficulties are being faced in rolling out telecom networks.”

Earlier, the Minister was given a detailed briefing on USF and its programmes for proliferation of telecom services in the unserved and under-served, remote and rural parts of the country.

Giving a presentation on the topic, the Chief Executive Officer, Parvez Iftikhar, apprised the Minister IT regarding programs of USF and the progress that USF projects have been making. He informed that the number of previously un-served Mauzas where service has been provided has reached 3,500 and almost 3,000 kms of Fiber Cables have been laid to connect remote Tehsils so far not served with Optical Fiber, mainly in Sindh and Balochistan. At the same time number of small towns and cities with broadband internet has touched 238 and all higher secondary schools, colleges and libraries falling in those areas are being provided free Broadband connections with five PCs and training for two teachers each.

Noting that all the progress made was during the tenure of the present government, the Minister IT assured USF Management of complete support. He commended the efforts being made by USF for striving to provide telecom services to all people of the country.

Secretary IT, Mr. Saeed Ahmed Khan and Secretary Law, Mr. Muhammad Masood Chishti, were also present in the briefing.

TV channels and newspapers are reporting that Dr. Babar Awan, who happened to be the law minister and additionally the minister in-charge of IT and Telecom, has resigned to appear in the supreme court for Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto case.

Official sources have not confirmed us the notification of Mr. Awan’s resignation, however, his resignation rendered in the supreme court is considered as valid by the masses.

If, it happens, this will mark an end to Dr. Awan’s less than two week minister-ship for IT and Telecom ministry.

During past three years, as we have discussed several times in the past, IT and Telecom ministry has remained either ministry-less or otherwise secretary-less. This situation has left so many organizations to work sluggishly or otherwise with no work/development at all.

It is just not understandable for a common man that why the government isn’t able to appoint one man out of 18 million people to head IT and Telecom Ministry.

We recently reported that telecom consumers paid over 36 billion rupees as taxes in just 6 months of 2010-11, however, if government’s lack of interest for the sector remains the same, the consequences could be hard to bear for already stricken economy of the country.

Mr. Kaleem Chaudhry is Regional Director, Enterprise Technology for Oracle Asia Pacific, where he leads a team of enterprise architects focused on providing architecture advisory to IT and business executives.

He supports strategic customer and partner/alliance engagements and is a frequent speaker at industry events on IT trends, Grid computing and infrastructure optimization techniques.

Recently Mr. Chaudhry was here in Pakistan for ‘Enterprise Cloud Summit’, when ProPakistani got a chance to get his views on Oracle’s Cloud Computing solutions – here is what he says:

Defined as the delivery of software and hardware as a service over the Internet, cloud computing is convenient, easy to access and low-cost platform for enterprisers and high-end professionals of different sectors.

Kaleem Chaudhry said that Oracle is enhancing its sophistication to the end users and cloud is the latest innovation for that journey.

He elaborated that there are two types of clouds – private and public. A private cloud runs within the firewall of an enterprise and is for the exclusive use of that enterprise. The system helps multiple users to share same working environment within organization and among multiple organizations.

While on other hands, he said, Public Cloud offers a platform under supervision of third party vendors, where multiple enterprises can use the shared infrastructure. For instance, different apparel makers connect with a private cloud having applications of their requirement. In the Public Cloud, the equipment is managed by service providers for multiple users.

He told us that Oracle offers solution not only for private and public clouds but also for hybrid cloud. Oracle platform offers various technologies in the data center in a way that multiple users of enterprises can access and share the application mutually. In addition, Oracle also offers an arrangement where a third party vendor buys infrastructure and helps other firms to work with it.

Both private and public cloud computing provide great computing efficiency, elasticity, scalability and the availability, thanks to an underlying Grid Computing architecture. Public clouds are typically faster and cheaper to get started and simpler to manage, while private clouds provide greater control over security, compliance and quality of service, are easier to integrate with in-house IT, and are potentially lower cost over the long term.

He explained that an enterprise can save its expenses significantly with 35 percent deduction in operation expenses, 44 percent cost reduction in electricity charges and 85 percent saving in physical cost with the accessibility to Oracle clouds.

The popularity of ready on demand access to IT environment is vital for entrepreneurs that comes without procuring expensive equipment and deployment of physical network.

Commenting on the the potential of Cloud Computing in Pakistan he said that it is growing tremendously with prevailing trend of using cutting-edge technology in the business model of medium and large enterprises.

Public cloud allows them to have access to highly advance technological and sophisticated environment without any upfront cost.

He told us that Oracle has handsome customer base in Pakistan, which always welcome our new technology because of reliability and quality of service.

Telecom, media and banking sectors possess exceptional potential to utilize cutting-edge technologies in their businesses. Oracle is at forefront to provide them high class services in accordance with the need of these sectors at most affordable charges.

There are well-known banks, cellular phone companies, government entities and manufacturing units in the country, majority of them including Pakistan Mobile Communications (Pvt.) Ltd. (Ufone), Pakistan Telecom Mobile Ltd. (Mobilink), Pakistan Telecommunications Ltd., Telenor Pakistan (Pvt.) Ltd., Warid Telecom (Pvt.) Ltd., Wateen Telecom (Pvt.) Ltd., Wi-Tribe Pakistan Ltd., are already using Oracle’s cloud infrastructure for database and business applications.

Mr. Chaudhry said that Oracle recently organized a ‘Data Centre Summit’ where a key level participation of officials from multinationals, banking and telecom sectors and manufacturers were seen, which showed the level of interest of the Pakistan firms towards the emerging technologies and application trends.

He emphasized that in today’s world, Cloud Computing is very essential technology. Pakistan is a growing economy with a lot of opportunities in its dense markets, in connection to which Oracle also finds a lucrative opportunity in the country because technology is a core foundation of every business in Pakistan.

Talking about IT Human Resources in Pakistan, Kaleem said that from his interaction with people at various local events he feels that Pakistan has been producing highly skilled IT professionals, which is evident from the advanced IT infrastructure in Pakistani firms. Pakistani professionals perform their task tremendously at world class organizations and they are playing a key role at Oracle also.

There is lot of potential in the educational institutions of Pakistan and it can produce brilliant IT professionals. The growing population depicts the growth of human resource also and more skilled workers will be the part of different organizations in the future.

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BGR

@LionelatDell (Twitter)

In a latest development today, Dr. Babar Awan was given the minister-ship of Telecom and It Ministry, told us sources in the IT ministry.

Dr. Babar Awan today visited the Ministry to take charge and to get familiar with the heads of Organizations under MoIT and staff, added our sources.

In addition to Minister-In charge of Telecom and IT Ministry, Dr. Awan will retain headship of law Ministry.

Ministry of IT and Telecom was minister-less since February 2011 when Syed Yousaf Raza Gillani, Prime Minister Pakistan had dissolved the federal cabinet.

Earlier, Sardar Assef Ahmed was made Minister for the MoITT in December 2010, however, he had to move out in February 2011 when federal cabinet was dissolved.

Appointment of Dr. Babar Awan is made at a time when ministry has remained back to back minister-less or secretary less for almost three years. His appointment is particularly important as USF is going to begin its operations after a halt of 11 months. Dispute between Chairman PTA and Member Finance of PTA is going to be riddle to solve for Dr. Awan.

Pakistan and India can boost their mutual trade in Information and Technology (IT) sector up to colossal US$ 5 billion through joint-ventures, investment and exchange of expertise.

This was stated by Jehan Ara President Pakistan Software Houses Association in the exclusive interview to ProPakistani on her return to Pakistan after leading a delegation of country’s top-notch figures of IT industry.

Briefing about her business trip, she said Pakistanis and Indian IT titans have decided to carry on their efforts for developing an “India-Pakistan e-land” at the border where people can meet, interact, teach, learn and jointly develop intellectual property.

They will work to convince their respect governments to allow telecommunications access to work across borders. They will continue to investment in young people, facilitate exchanges, and provide education and skilling to enable them to achieve their potential, Jehan Ara said.

Pakistani and Indian IT committee of Aman Ki Asha has successfully held the bilateral talks separately on both sides of borders in December and March aimed at enhancing trade ties in the field of IT, which is one of six sectors with great trade attraction between two countries.

“Indian IT market is huge with volumetric exports but it is lacking of high quality of services, in contrast, Pakistani market is small comparatively but has gained tremendous reputation with its products and services,” she said and added “these two countries will aid each other to enhance their quantum and quality of IT services and products.”

Pakistani IT firms are experts of gaming and animation whereas Indians are master service providers of IT-enable services, she said. How will it conducive the India set up their BPO’s in Pakistan and exchange expertise of gaming and animation from Pakistan, she further explained.

There are lots of hurdles to set up software houses in each other countries by the two states but it is an easy solution to make a joint platform in third country such as UAE, Singapore or Malaysia, she said.

Visa policy by both states to IT entrepreneurs is very strict with tough conditions. Besides, there is no bank of Pakistan in India and Indian in Pakistan to ensure letter of credits (LCs) facility and exchange of money by the two sides. Therefore, these measures must be resolved by the both government to facilitate entrepreneurs of their countries, she said.

The third venue is the most viable option for IT entrepreneurs of India and Pakistan as a matter of fact that they could start work on mutual project at the earliest, which will pave the way towards real business and trade opportunities at cities of each other countries, President Pasha said.

She added the real growth in trade between the two countries particularly in the field of IT could multiply significantly when India and Pakistan establish and operate their offshore offices at each other lands.

She said the two countries have large young populations whose energies can, with proper education and skills training, be utilized productively in order to reap the ‘demographic dividend’ and build collaborative projects between the youth of both countries.

These countries have much to offer each other, with Pakistan providing a host of IT graduates that India could utilize by building collaborative development centers and India providing skills development to the significant IT product companies in Pakistan. The companies could also jointly tap the huge domestic market in both countries and global opportunities for IT solutions especially in emerging markets in the Middle East, Africa and South America, Jehan Ara said.

Aman ki Asha IT Committees

India: Dr Ganesh Natarajan (Mission Leader), Chairman CII National Committee on IT & ITES, Vice Chairman and CEO, Zensar Technologies; Mr Harsh Manglik, Chairman, NASSCOM & Co-Chairman-India & Geography Managing Director Accenture; Ms Nandita Mohan Gurjar, Senior Vice President & Group Head – Human Resources Infosys Technologies Pvt. Ltd, Mr Pradeep Udhas, Executive Director, KPMG Advisory Services Pvt Ltd.; Dr Uma Ganesh CEO Global Talent Track Ltd Ms Prameela Kalive, Vice President & Business Head, Zensar Technologies; Mr Rahul Mohod, Chief Executive Officer iResolvIT Pty Limited, Sydney; Mr Govind Das Sharma (Mission Manager), Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). Rasika Waikalkar, Coordinator, Young Indians

Pakistan: Jehan Ara, President, Pakistan Software Houses Association for IT & ITES (P@SHA); Humayun Bashir, Country Head, Pakistan IBM; Yusuf Jan, Co-Founder, Mixit Technologies; Ashraf Kapadia, Managing Director Systems Ltd; Ali Jameel, Executive Director, TRG; Naseer Akhtar, President & CEO, Infotech Pvt Ltd; Salman Akhtar, CEO, Techlogix; Ziad Bashir, Chairman, Arwen Technologies, Nadeem Elahi, Country Manager TRG; Salim Ghauri, President, NetSol Technologies, Sultan Hamdani, COO, Maison Consulting Pvt Ltd

Ever since the Nexus S and its nifty little NFC chip hit the market, there’s been speculation that El Goog was planning a foray into the mobile payment arena currently occupied by the likes of Charge Anywhere. Now, it looks like that plan may be in high gear, as the Wall Street Journal reports that Google’s secretly partnered with MasterCard and Citigroup to test out just such a system. According to the publication, the early demo pairs “one current model and many coming models of Android phones” with existing Citigroup-sponsored credit and debit cards, and is using the phones’ NFC chips with those VeriFone readers we recently heard about.

What’s more, a newly-published patent application from the crew in Mountain View may hint at the software behind such things. The application describes a service that sets up Google as a third-party broker who receives the shopping cart info of customers placing orders via a device (including those of the mobile variety), allows them to select shipping and other options, and provides the total order cost. It then collects payment, coordinates shipment, and forwards order information to the seller to complete the transaction. So companies can have Google handle all their payment-taking needs in return for getting a sneak peek at what folks are buying — something that the WSJ’s sources say might be a component of the setup Google’s testing right now — as opposed to other third-party services, like Paypal, that only obtain and exchange payment info with merchants. Looks like Alma Whitten (Google’s Director of Privacy) has her work cut out assuaging the concerns such a system will inevitably create in an increasingly privacy-minded populace.

Sean Hollister contributed to this report.

BNET

Wall Street Journal, USPTO

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11th February was the date when Nokia announced its partnership with Microsoft. It’s was just the last month but it already feels like an old story.

I thought the same until I picked up this month’s issue of the most reputed local internet magazine and was disappointed to read the same pre-calculated analysis published in it (which is circulating all over the web).

So let’s dissect & clarify this issue once and for all.

Let’s go couple of years back, when Nokia started losing its market share to iOS and Android and it strongly needed to come up with a competitive product but this time it was not about cutting edge hardware, but it was about the software and the user experience.

Nokia’s answer was not customized Symbian but Maemo which later turned into MeeGo, which was going to be the future of Nokia’s smartphones – but something didn’t go right.

During all this, iOS was advancing, Android was expanding its user base, HP bought Palm and released WebOS 2.0, RIM launched a new & improved version of its BlackBerry OS & a BlackBerry tablet, one company was left without an Eco System of their own & it was Nokia.

They had to act and act fast.

Now if we believe Nokia’s CEO Stephen Elop, he said in an interview that when he arrived at the company (Sep. 2010), Nokia then knew that it has to make a strategic assessment & CEO’s job was to lead the company through that.

At this point Nokia weighed all of its options from continued investment in Symbian to MeeGo to other platforms and finally partnered with Microsoft for Windows Phone 7.

You may argue why Nokia didn’t partner with Android then?

Here is the reason: Back in September 2010 Google asked Motorola to stop using SkyHook’s location services on the Droid X, which Motorola had decided to use instead of Google’s Location Services.

If Nokia was in place of Motorola (and considering the fact that Nokia owns Navteq (a $8.1 Billion acquisition)), it would never had nodded the Google’s call.

But now, look at the complete freedom Nokia has – it can modify Windows Phone 7 in any way it want. So definitely WP7 was the choice.

will Symbian Die after WP7 Phones?

So is Symbian dead? MeeGo gone? N-series phones soon to be history? The answer it not what you have been listening to and it is, No.

Symbian is staying in its current status till the end of 2012 and until than it will be actively developed and modified. One example is the new set of icons, animations, customizable widgets and the addition of my favorite feature, the drop down notification bar (yes, they way Andriod has it).

This update is coming soon.

What will happen after 2012? The Smartphone’s from Nokia will transition to Windows Phone 7 & Symbian (particularly Series 40 & variants) will continue to be a part of the low-end phones or plain mobile phones. So it is more of relegation than plain death. But where does MeeGo fit in?

“We are not thinking about MeeGo as the Plan B but we are thinking about MeeGo as what’s the next generation”, “What’s the next wave of business and technological disruption (beyond iOS, Android, WP7). We want to make sure we are leading through that as well”.

These three lines summarize the future of MeeGo as it is the OS Nokia will develop to lead the future platform/OS wars beyond the current ones.

What the future holds, no one knows for sure. Huawei is manufacturing low priced cheap Android phones, there are rumors that Apple is working on a smaller or cheaper iPhone & that too is the plan of Nokia to bring WP7 to all the different price points instead of just a premium product.

Whatever the outcome, one thing is for sure, the consumer (you & I) will benefit.