PayPal, Stripe coming to Pakistan as govt eyes boosting IT exports by $5bn

PayPal, Stripe coming to Pakistan as govt eyes boosting IT exports by $5bn

ISLAMABAD – The interim government is chalking out a strategy to bring online payment giants PayPal, and Stripe to Pakistan, in the latest bid to push the country’s IT exports.

Pakistan’s IT exports witnessed a huge surge of around 24percent in May 2023, while the annual number was recorded at $2.6 billion in 2022.

Lately, caretaker IT Minister and tech pioneer Dr Umar Saif said his government planned to boost IT exports by $5 billion by training over 2lac professionals, channelizing dollar retention accounts, and bringing global online payment platforms Paypal and Stripe to Pakistan.

More than 6 lac Pakistanis are exporting their IT services around the globe, mostly through freelance work or different IT techs, and raking in $250 million per month in export remittances to South Asian countries.

Amid continued surge in IT exports, freelancers are facing payment issues as online payment platforms Paypal, and Stripe are currently not operating in Pakistan, due to a lack of business opportunities, regulatory and compliance issues, besides concerns of fraud and money laundering.

In a social media post, Dr Umar Saif said Prime Minister Kakar has approved and appreciated our plan for the Ministry of IT and Telecom which includes bringing PayPal and Stripe to Pakistan and establishing co-working spaces for 500,000 freelancers to increase their potential to an additional $3 billion per year.

The former PITB chief said interim PM also gave nod to provide incentives for local manufacturing and export of smartphones in Pakistan, as well as smartphone financing platform to enhance local demand.

He further mentioned rolling out 5G auction within ten months by implementing active spectrum sharing, progressive taxation policies, and favorable regulations.