LAHORE: Growth in Pakistan’s information technology exports is widening the tech sector’s access to global markets, with ICT export remittances recording an annual increase of 19.7 per cent in the 2025-26 financial year.
Pakistan’s IT sector is emerging rapidly on the global stage through significant progress in exports and digital business.
Pakistan’s ICT sector achieved a trade surplus of $2.91 billion, playing an important role in economic growth.
The distinction matters. Most of Pakistan’s export categories are gross figures against which substantial import costs must be set — textiles require imported cotton and machinery, and the net contribution to the current account is correspondingly smaller. ICT exports carry a far lower import content, which is why the sector’s surplus figure sits close to its gross earnings and why its contribution to foreign exchange reserves is disproportionate to its size in GDP terms.
Alongside rising IT activity, 872 new companies related to IT and IT services were registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan.
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Company registration data is a useful leading indicator for the sector. Formal incorporation is a prerequisite for opening foreign currency accounts, signing enterprise contracts and accessing export facilitation, so a rise in registrations signals firms moving from informal freelance arrangements into structured export businesses.
Pakistani tech companies, digital agencies and e-commerce businesses are expanding rapidly into global markets. More than 20 Pakistani companies recently participated in an international exhibition held in Saudi Arabia.
The Gulf has become a priority corridor for Pakistani technology firms, driven by proximity, time zone alignment, large public-sector digitalisation programmes across the region, and an established Pakistani professional presence that lowers the cost of market entry.
The Special Investment Facilitation Council is playing an important role in the development of Pakistan’s IT sector, the digital economy and the promotion of investment. Modern financial infrastructure has proved helpful in receiving payments in global currencies and in managing international funds.
Payment infrastructure has historically been the binding constraint on Pakistan’s IT export earnings. Freelancers and small firms unable to receive payment through recognised international channels either lost contracts or routed earnings outside the formal banking system, where they never appeared in export statistics. Improvements in that infrastructure raise recorded exports independently of any change in the volume of work performed.
IT exports, new company formation and the development of digital infrastructure are providing a strong foundation for Pakistan’s digital economy.
The sector’s advantage rests on a large, young, English-capable workforce and a cost base well below competing delivery locations. Its constraints are equally well documented: electricity reliability, internet stability, the depth of the senior engineering talent pool, and the ability of firms to move from contract delivery into product ownership, where margins are substantially higher.
The 19.7 per cent growth figure places the sector among the fastest-expanding components of Pakistan’s export base.
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