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Let’s Take A Look at the ICT Industry?

If the brightest graduates produced by some of the leading institutes of our nation still seek greener pastures outside Pakistan, then we must be remarkable at maintaining an infertile image of Pakistan.  When indeed, it should be opposite given the growth statistics, few of the local industries have managed to sustain. And that isn’t far from truth for at least the telecommunications industry. Pakistan will be amongst the top 10 largest mobile market in the world within a year, stated a forecast from Wireless Intelligence. The forecast fairly explains the tremendous potential the local telecom industry has for growth, investment and development.

As goes the success story, it was only about a decade ago that mobile phones were so costly that only a handful of people could afford owning them. And therefore, holding possession of this miraculous device was no less than a luxury.  However, with time, perpetual technological advancements and an increasing demand for communication-on-the-go made it possible for hardware manufacturers to produce low-cost mobile devices. Fast forwarding to today, mobile phones available for as low as Rs. 999/ have enabled even consumers from the lower socioeconomic strata of society such as electricians, plumbers and daily wage-earners to own a mobile phone often out of a business necessity. Facilitating a mobile phone penetration even at the grassroots, Nokia definitely has to be credited here exemplary to which, is the leading market share Nokia holds in all developing markets, including Pakistan, India, Middle East, Africa and South America. In Pakistan, about 70% of the people use and rely on Nokia devices, specially the low-end phones.

Seeing the kind of market some of the leading MNCs like Nokia, have developed, many localites like  QMobile, Voice Mobile, Megagate, and Trend Mobile have also jumped in. Aiming to slice out a share for themselves from a market that is on moving quite aggressively towards a saturation point, the competition is often only price-driven and not, feature-driven. One of these has replicated the entire E-Series very nicely at a fractional cost. There are exceptions as well. Megagate recently made a history by launching Pakistan’s first application store named SWAPP. Good news is the price range that makes it buyable at less than PKR 20!

Despite such efforts, these local mobile manufacturing companies are still not able to mark a name for themselves in the market. Can this be related to the conclusion reached earlier that we are indeed quite poor at employing and retaining quality talent that is only the local produce? Maybe so, given the many child prodigies amongst us those are gaining recognition today via an association with many of the leading MNCs. One such youngster that is the closest to our hearts is late Arfa Karim whose treatment was only financed by the giant that opened Windows of technology for consumers globally. Her departure left a talent void that cannot be matched, but serves an inspiration to-date for many others to follow. A 16 year old boy, Sherjeel Shabih, developed a bulk text messaging application for Android smart phones. The application is called Multi-Texter and it enables the sender to send text messages in bulk to multiple contacts at the same instant.

Very recently, Babar Iqbal, a 14-year old Pakistani kid based in the U.A.E, set a new record in the field of computer science by publishing his first research paper on Digital Forensic Science. Babar Iqbal earned the titles of Youngest Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP) and Youngest Certified Wireless Network Administrator (CWNA) at age 9, Youngest Certified Web Professional Associate (CIWA) at the age 10 and Youngest Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS) at age 12.

Another example worth mentioning here is of another 14 year old boy named Sikandar Mehmood Balouch who set a world record by creating seven Microsoft and Google certified computer operating systems. He is a 9th grade student who became an expert of 107 computer engineering languages and has received numerous certificates from Microsoft and Google for his work. The tech genius made world record by creating his first OS at the age of just 9 years. Joining the league, is another young talent based out of Mardan that has developed the first of its kind, SMS-based social networking app called SMileSMS. Observing the success stories that pop out one after another, it is foolish to believe that we are short of quality resource. The gap area that needs to be plugged possibly, is keeping the talent in-house. The youth wouldn’t be inclined to work only with MNC tech giants if the incentives and recognition offered by local tech companies, such as Megagate and QMobile amongst others, is as encouraging.

The problem here is that people of such talent are being utilized effectively by neither the government nor the corporate world. Since most of the companies are sales-oriented, they don’t focus on polishing the skill set of such young talent. Optimally, that should be the employment model at least at the internship level, whereby, talented kids are rewarded preferably through certifications and awards for developing an in-house app for instance , as monetary incentive isn’t exactly very economical in the recessionary times of today. Certifications stamped by government bodies like the Karachi Chamber of Commerce (KCCI) etc serve as a much larger incentive for the youth that already has a laundry list of reasons for not working in Pakistan. Local mobile manufacturers, for instance, can employ the tech-innovating kids to develop apps for their OS.

To tap such talent, the companies need to first identify where can be reached. Getting quality youth on board is not a big deal. Retaining it obviously can be a very difficult task which the companies have to understand in order to grow. They have to realize that they should not only compensate time but also talent in the employment model they build, in order to grow with a competitive edge.

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