Moto has invested about USD 10 million in Mobilecomplete, a startup in Cali with offices in Karachi. This is truly great news, that expats have , despite all the pain Pakistan and its government puts them through, setup shop here and are sending jobs back home while at the same time driving true innovation. Details of it are here:
http://gigaom.com/2006/12/05/mobilecomplete/
My thoughts below :
I salute the brave and the bold who come back to Pakistan an setup an outsourcing shop. You guys are the best, and you trule understand that we live in a flat world and we are no longer immune to events happening outside our borders. And you truly understand the value of moving to achieve lower costs and economies of scale. Technology is disruptive. get on board, or get run over. Technology comes and wipes out countries, economies, ethinic groups.
Today was another strike in Karachi, and Im sure it affected Mobilecomplete’s operations. As most of you know by now, the government has arrested a technology entreprenuer on the basis that he was running an illegal Vo-IP operation in Islamabad. He actually was building innovative products around VoIP technology, probably for the US market and he had similar goals as Mobilecomplete did. Systems is facing problems as well. Because of local inflation in Pakistan, their composite rate has gone up a few dollars and is edging towards the rate Wipro/Tata/etc charge. I wonder what a western customer would do then…let me tell you. If your composite rate/hr is USD 25 say and Wipro’s is 35, he’ll stay with you. If its $32 and Wipro’s is $35, he’ll go with them. And your rate is higher cause everything in Pakistan now is too expensive, so not your fault really. Thats what Netsol and Systems are facing.
The government of Pakistan sorely needs to look into these issues and do more than simple lip service to the only industry that is actually growing faster than the economy.
Instead of literally squeezing us for every half cent in taxes and expenses and jailing the very people who provide jobs and build value for an economy , why dont they provide us with some funding, (and i mean a few hundred million US to the industry overall, not the chump change they give through PSEB) , give us half a peaceful environment (in karachi, lhr and isb are ok really) and sponsor industry and university relations? atleast? Im asking for too much arent I ?
Filed under: Uncategorized
[...] Mohtashim wrote a nice elegant rant about the IT Industry of PK — it is almost poetic, in that you can tell it comes from the heart. [...]
Credit cards are a part of my life and I use them for every purchase I make. I’ve been especially concerned about cash back credit cards and I managed to make good sums with them. Now I’m seriously thinking of moving onto airline miles credit cards and earn free airline tickets. A great variety of such type credit cards can be found at
how does credit cardbalance transfer work