Federal Minister for Information Technology Shaza Fatima has said that Pakistan’s tech industry is thriving due to the talent and potential of its young workforce, reported 24NewsHD TV channeol.
Shaza Fatima made these remarks during her visit to Huawei’s Global Service Centre in Islamabad on Monday.
The minister said Pakistan’s IT talent is competitive in terms of both cost and quality. She highlighted their growing contribution to the services industry, describing it as a key pillar of the country’s economy and an important source of foreign exchange earnings.
The minister noted that Pakistan’s IT exports are growing by around 20 percent annually. She reiterated the government’s commitment to achieving the 25 billion dollars IT export target set by the prime minister.
Referring to the longstanding friendship between Pakistan and China, Shaza Fatima expressed confidence that Huawei would further expand its presence and investment in Pakistan.
During her visit to Huawei’s Global Support Center (GSC) in Islamabad, Shaza Fatima was given a briefing on its operations, toured the centre and interacted with young Pakistani engineers and technology professionals supporting global ICT operations.
The minister was received by Ethan Sun, CEO Huawei Pakistan, Ahmed Bilal Masud, CEO AI & Cloud, Huawei Pakistan, and senior management of GSC.
Speaking on the occasion, Shaza Fatima stated that Huawei GSC demonstrated Pakistan’s growing potential as a global hub for technology and IT-enabled services.
Describing the model as “exports without shipping containers,” she said Pakistani professionals were increasingly delivering high-value digital services to international markets from within the country.
She highlighted Pakistan’s young workforce, noting that around 68 percent of the population is under the age of 30, and emphasized the need to translate this demographic strength into skilled human capital and global economic opportunities.
Recalling Huawei-Pakistan training partnership agreed during the Prime Minister’s visit to China, Shaza Fatima appreciated Huawei’s commitment to train 300,000 young Pakistanis in ICT skills.
She stressed stronger collaboration among government, industry and academia to build a sustainable technology talent pipeline and connect young Pakistanis with international opportunities.
The Minister appreciated Huawei’s contribution to technical capacity building through its ICT Academies and encouraged the company to further expand investment, knowledge transfer, mentoring and explore opportunities for establishing an R&D centre in Pakistan.
Interacting with women engineers at the Centre, the Minister appreciated their contribution to Pakistan’s digital economy and underscored the importance of creating greater opportunities for women in the technology sector.
Speaking on the occasion, Ethan Sun said Huawei was proud to contribute to Pakistan’s digital development by strengthening local technical expertise and creating opportunities for Pakistani professionals to participate in the global digital economy.
The Huawei Global Support Center in Islamabad serves as a hub for global technology operations, providing remote technical support, network operations, service assurance and other advanced ICT services to international customers. The Centre provides Pakistani engineers and technical professionals with opportunities to contribute to global technology operations from within Pakistan.