Pakistan is seeking to expand its technology exports by helping local companies compete for contracts in the United States' $1.5 trillion State, Local and Education (SLED) procurement market, Information Technology Minister Shaza Fatima Khawaja said on Wednesday, as Islamabad looks to increase foreign exchange earnings from one of its fastest-growing export sectors.
Focus on US SLED Market
Technology exports have become an increasingly important source of dollar inflows for Pakistan as the country seeks to diversify beyond traditional exports such as textiles. While Pakistani software companies already serve private clients around the world, the government is now trying to help them access the vast US public procurement market, which includes purchases by state governments, municipalities, public school districts, colleges and universities.
The initiative focuses on the US State, Local and Education, or SLED, market rather than federal government contracts. It covers public-sector spending on software, cybersecurity, cloud services, artificial intelligence and other digital technologies by about 90,000 government agencies and educational institutions across the United States.
Minister's Remarks at Training Program
“The United States already is our largest export partner. Sixty-two percent of our exports are to the United States when you talk about tech exports,” Khawaja said at the closing ceremony of a government-supported training program for Pakistani technology companies. “The US being already the largest market that we have in terms of our tech trade, I think this particular project will help us accelerate our export growth in the US.”
“Opening of market to about 90,000 buyers… over $1.5 trillion, this is an economy, this is a market that is straight up open for you,” she told participants.
Pilot Initiative and Investment
The minister added that the government had trained 74 Pakistani technology companies to compete for contracts in the SLED market as part of a pilot initiative designed to expand market access for domestic firms. She said the government had invested about Rs6-7 million (roughly $25,000) in the program and was already seeing early commercial results, adding that future support for training initiatives would increasingly be judged by whether participating companies secured contracts, generated revenue or created jobs rather than by the number of people trained.
New Evaluation Metrics for Training Programs
Khawaja said the government had also changed how publicly funded technology training programs would be evaluated, introducing independent tracer studies six months after completion to measure whether participants had found employment, launched businesses or won commercial work.
Pakistan's IT exports have grown steadily in recent years, driven by software development, business process outsourcing and freelancing. The government has identified the digital economy as a priority sector for increasing export earnings and attracting foreign investment, with officials aiming to accelerate annual growth in technology exports by expanding Pakistani firms' access to overseas markets.
