Pakistan’s national kitty is increasing due to IT related export –it saw a record increase despite Covid-19 and the country now aims to get to $5 billion benchmark by 2023 in IT exports.
“Not difficult”, says a market expert based in UAE.
The country’s fiscal year 2019-20 was reported to be a great year for IT & ITeS export remittances, which were recorded at $1.23 billion, growing nearly 24 per cent as compared to the FY19.
“We are setting a target of $5 billion in IT export remittance by FY2023, and will provide all the necessary support to achieve this target,” said the country’s Federal Minister for IT and Telecom Syed Aminul Haque at a seminar last month.
On Tuesday, the National Center for Cybersecurity (NCCS) at NED University of Science and Technology in Karachi announced it collaborated with the National Clearing Company of Pakistan Limited (NCCPL) to develop an AI-based cybersecurity system which can detect suspicious activity in financial transactions with a very high degree of accuracy. The initiators and developers plan to export the knowledge-based initiative also.
“The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region located southwest of Pakistan provides a vast swathe of opportunities” ($320 billion), says the expert.
Termed the Security and Threat Intelligence Platform, the smart system has integrated threat intelligence, behavioral monitoring, asset discovery, smart intrusion detection, and vulnerability assessment models. “This is also needed in the MENA region,” says the expert.
Once deployed in financial systems, the platform will highlight suspicious outliers and serves as a firewall against a host of cyber threats, including cyber theft, ransomware, and spyware attacks.
The platform reportedly developed in NED was done within a year and is easily customizable according to a range of business needs and requirements. It was demonstrated during a cybersecurity seminar organized by the Karachi-based varsity.
E-Commerce, payment solutions, etc. will get a boost in the country with the installation of such platform in businesses, observers say. “It’s a step up toward becoming self-reliant in cybersecurity in this age of cyber warfare,” said a defense analyst.
The initiators also seek to offer the security platform for knowledge-based export –an emerging subdomain in the country’s growing IT related service export.
One area to seriously look at also is the huge Creative and Cultural (CCI) domain spread worldwide and in its emergence in the MENA region, the expert adds. According to him, there’s confluence of IT, AI and CCI.”MENA has financial resources and seeks knowledge-based partners to monetize emerging opportunities”, says a professional-cum-IT-entrepreneur based in Dubai –he provides related services in Saudi Arabia and other GCC countries.
“Networking and bridging is the key though”, he says.
