Caretaker Federal Minister for IT and Telecommunications, Dr. Umar Saif, announced on Wednesday that Pakistan is on the verge of receiving positive news regarding the introduction of PayPal and Stripe payment gateways in the country.
Addressing the media alongside Caretaker Information Minister Murtaza Solangi, Dr. Saif highlighted the absence of suitable financial instruments to facilitate payments for Pakistan's growing freelancing community.
He acknowledged that companies like PayPal and Stripe had concerns, including issues related to the FATF. Despite these challenges, Dr. Saif expressed optimism that within the next four to six weeks, Pakistan would receive the promising news of these payment gateways becoming available, and a solution would be devised to make these services accessible to the freelancer community.
Dr. Saif emphasized that approximately 1.5 million Pakistanis are engaged in IT freelancing, making Pakistan the second-largest online workforce globally. However, he noted that the lack of necessary infrastructure is limiting progress.
To address this, he mentioned the E-Rozgar program, which aims to provide interest-free loans to the private sector, with plans to establish co-working spaces for up to 500,000 people.
The interim minister also highlighted that Pakistan's IT sector comprises around 19,000 companies, providing employment for 150,000 individuals and achieving exports valued at $2.5 billion in official exports. Dr. Saif mentioned that some IT companies maintain foreign exchange reserves and revenues abroad due to restrictions on repatriating US dollars.
Efforts have been made to allow these companies to retain 50% of their revenue in US dollar accounts and receive corporate debit cards for international payments.
Notably, the State Bank of Pakistan recently increased the permissible retention limit for IT exporters from 35% to 50% of their export proceeds in the Exporters' Specialized Foreign Currency Accounts (ESFCAs) to boost the export of IT and IT-enabled services.