SBP offers fresh incentives to attract more remittances
The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) offered more incentives to banks and exchange companies for bringing remittances in the country.
"In order to further encourage promotion of home remittances through formal channels, the government of Pakistan has approved reintroduction of subject scheme with effective from July 1, 2021 to June 30, 2022 to cover home remittance performance for FY22 compared to that of FY21," the SBP said in a circular addressed to all banks and exchange companies.
If the home remittances exceeded five per cent growth in FY22 compared with the levels achieved in FY21, the government will offer Rs0.5 per each incremental US dollar mobilised over 5pc growth, the circular said.
If the home remittances exceeded 10pc growth in FY22 compared with the levels achieved in FY21, the government would offer (in addition to Rs0.5 per US dollar) Rs0.75 per each incremental US dollar mobilised over 10pc growth.
If the home remittances exceeded 15pc growth in FY22 compared with the levels achieved in FY21, the government is set to offer (in addition to Rs0.75 per US dollar) Rs1 per each incremental US dollar mobilised over 15pc growth.
The Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication would establish more software technology parks across the country to enhance the growth of Information Technology industry in Pakistan.
"We want to establish software technology parks in small and big cities of the country, for which Pakistan Software Export Board, an attached department of the ministry, is working to establish software technology parks in Quetta, Gwadar, Faisalabad, Bannu, Swat, Mardan, Sukkur and Hyderabad," a senior official of the IT ministry told APP.
He said the government had also decided to set up an information technology park near the Jinnah International Airport in the trade and business hub of Karachi at a cost of Rs 31 billion.
The IT park would house about 210 IT companies having 8,400 employees. Pakistan Software Export Board (PSEB) would act as the project executing agency and complete it in six years. The IT park would span over an area of 106,449 square meters with eight floors above the ground and three basement floors, he said.
To a question, the official said the ministry of IT had recently inaugurated IT Park in Islamabad, consisting of twelve-storey self-contained building on covered area of 66,893 square meters.
The IT Park would be developed with state-ofthe-art infrastructure and allied facilities for IT companies with financial assistance of Exim Bank, Korea, he added. The project, he said, would be completed in 30 months with the total cost of Rs 13.72 billion.
The project for establishing IT Park in Islamabad was linked with the steps for fulfilling Digital Pakistan Vision which not only mitigate the shortage of infrastructure for IT sector rather also facilitate technology transfer through industry and academia linkage, support technology commercialization, links tertiary education and production, promote research and development and enhances IT exports and the industry competitiveness.
He said the Islamabad IT Project was expected to provide over 5,000 direct and indirect employment opportunities during construction phase and about 15,000 employment opportunities to IT experts, students and persons concerning industry after its completion.