What Ails the BPO industry in Pakistan?
By Noman Faisal Historians in Pakistan noted with excitement the dawn of the Information Technology revolution and then cringed with helplessness as it went past us. Universities churned out thousands of IT engineers and programmers. Most of them are now working in sales or local call centers. As the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry made waves in India, changing the lifestyle of people in Bangalore and other cities, people in Pakistan watched with optimism that maybe just this time, we will get some where. But this too did not materialize. The National Association of Software Services and Companies (NASSCOM) in India points out that “the motivating factors behind making India the great BPO/ITeS destination include strong quality orientation among players, ability to offer round-the-clock services based on the country’s unique geographic location, positive policy environment which encourages investments and a friendly tax structure, which places the ITES/BPO industry on almos
