TechLahore

A rapidly growing Dubai is increasingly using Pakistani software

Mansour Bajwa, Commercial Counselor for Pakistan in Dubai, was quoted in this story highlighting the rapid growth in exports from Pakistan to the UAE. “Pakistan is also increasing exports of [..] IT software products, particularly to the UAE“, he said. Pakistani software shops have been developing solutions for UAE companies for many years now, but perhaps an even greater contributor of Forex receipts is the large Pakistani IT diaspora at work in Abu Dhabi and Dubai. It’s not a stretch to say that Pakistanis play a – perhaps the - pivotal role in the UAE’s IT industry.

Back in 2007, Pakistan exported about $1.2B worth of goods and services to the UAE, and so the $600M increase in just one year represents growth of 50% YoY. Given the UAE’s own explosive growth, the potential for Pakistan exports to the Emirates as well as the GCC countries, appears limitless. More from the story after the fold.

UAE’s imports from Pakistan rise 50% to $1.8b

The UAE’s imports from Pakistan increased 50 per cent this year compared with the previous year, according to trade figures from the Pakistani Commercial Office in Dubai. Imports increased from $1.2 billion in 2007 to $1.8 billion in 2008. The UAE was the largest importer from Pakistan in the Arab region.

The Arab region imported goods worth $3.36 billion in the July 2007-May 2008 period, an increase of 40.4 per cent from the year before. Mansour Bajwa, commercial counsellor for Pakistan in Dubai, told Gulf News that the main imports to the UAE include textiles, leather and rice. “Pakistan is also increasing exports of gems and jewellery, fruits and vegetables, IT software exports and petroleum products, particularly to the UAE,” he said.

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Growing interest

He said that “a lot of investors have shown interest” in the first Middle East-Pakistan agriculture and dairy investment forum, Abraaj CapitalAbraaj CapitalLoading… and other UAE companies and institutions have acquired farmland in Pakistan. At the agriculture forum in Dubai last April, “investors pledged over $3 billion worth of new investments in Pakistan’s agriculture and dairy sectors, highlighting the country’s potential for milk and fruit production,” according to a Gulf Research Centre report on agriculture investment.

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