Cisco Systems, the worldwide leader in Internet networking, said on Tuesday it would open an office in Pakistan this year to help develop the country`s small IT industry.
"A full-fledged office will be opened in Islamabad in this calendar year," Rowland Griffiths, regional director of Cisco Systems Middle East, told a news conference in Karachi.
He said Cisco would invest $3 million to $5 million to establish the office and would bring in venture capital funds to invest in the growing IT sector in Pakistan.
Griffiths said the investment by Cisco, which supplies more than 80% of the routers that make up the backbone of the global Internet, would give Pakistan the infrastructure to help it become an IT power.
He said the military-led government`s policies toward information technology encouraged the company.
Military ruler General Pervez Musharraf has said he sees information technology as a backbone of his economic plan and has allocated 15 billion rupees from the budget for the fiscal year that began in July for the sector`s development.
Pakistan`s IT exports are estimated at $30 million, far behind India where the exports are worth close to $4 billion.
Griffiths said Cisco would focus on large institutions such as banks, Internet providers and the telecommunications industry.
He said while the IT industry in Pakistan was small, the population of 140 million meant the growth potential was large.
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