NEW DELHI: Whether Bill Clinton parts company with Pakistan or not after getting so much first-hand knowledge, his namesake Bill Gates has quickly abandoned Lahore as his Microsoft company's customer support centre for the Gulf market. The gainer is Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu's Cyberabad, a centre of excellence for IT (information technology) in Hyderabad.
The Microsoft has decided to move lock, stock and barrel its support centre from Lahore to Hyderabad for meeting the e-commerce needs of the fast-emerging Gulf market, Pakistani daily "The Nation" reported on Wednesday. The daily said it learnt on good authority that Microsoft decided to abandon Lahore for its Gulf operations following the bureaucratic delays in the decision on the fundamental issues of the Information Technology.
The decision of the IT giant is bound to be followed by other world leaders in the IT industry. Its decision to come to Hyderabad would bring thousands of jobs for the IT professionals and income in billions in foreign exchange instead of these professionals leaving homeland for the U.S. to seek fortunes. Investors in the I.T from the US and other countries had also intended to invest in the Telecommunication infrastructure of Pakistan should it open up itself for the IT sector.
"The Nation" said $500 million, announced by the US President Bill Clinton during his visit to India last week, was actually that very investment of the US companies which they had spared to invest in the infrastructure of the host country - which is now India instead of Pakistan.
Sources revealed that promise of declaring Lahore as the back up support center for the e-commerce software of the Microsoft was won by the ousted Chief Minister, Shahbaz Sharif during his visit to the United States and later Singapore.
Sources said that the line rent of the PDN lines and International Lease Line (ILL) were so high in Pakistan that majority of the companies were reluctant to land or invest here. Moreover, PTCL, which was enjoying monopoly over the ILL, was making uncalled for delays while deciding applications of the foreign IT companies.
Although there was a review on the ILL tariff following the directions of the Chief Executive but the decision on the applications of the foreign companies were delayed to such an extent that majority of them decided to switch over to India where not only line rent was competitive and far less than Pakistan but 'other facilities' were also available, "The Nation" said.
It said Pakistan had lost the golden opportunity to get itself recognised as an international IT centre. It said Pakistan was getting this chance only because of the fact that the international IT companies have placed Pakistan in the 'Gulf region' while India was being placed in the 'Far Eastern region'.
The daily said this pretext favoured Pakistan to dominate the Gulf market but none from the Pakistan side could pursue matter with the Microsoft and subsequently Pakistan was abandoned as center of back up support for the e-commerce products of the Microsoft, for the Gulf market. The IT giant has only shown the way for other world leaders in IT to better opt for India. END.
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