Pakistan: Digital Economy Can Reach 7% of GDP by 2030: OICCI
Wire desk byline Sourced from Xinhua, Dawn, Arab News, Anadolu and Minute Mirror. Translated and abridged by the GSRRA Desk.
Pakistan’s digital economy has the potential to contribute 5 to 7 percent to GDP by 2030, but the following delays could cost billions, Overseas Investors Chamber of Commerce and Industry (OICCI) said in a report.
The chamber launched its flagship report, Recommendations for Pakistan’s Digital Future, presenting a broad assessment of the country’s digital ecosystem, policy gaps, and growth opportunities.
According to the report, Pakistan’s digital adoption continues to show strong momentum, with IT and IT-enabled services exports reaching $3.8 billion and the freelance economy generating $779 million in earnings. The country now has more than 150 million broadband subscriptions and over 200 million telecom connections.
The report also highlighted that the mobile ecosystem contributes an estimated $17 billion to the national economy, while digital payments continue to expand rapidly. The Raast instant payment system processed Rs. 18 trillion in peer-to-peer transactions in FY26.
Despite this progress, OICCI pointed to major infrastructure gaps, noting that only around 18 percent of cellular towers are connected through fibre, significantly below the global benchmark of nearly 40 percent.
The report recommends lower taxes on broadband services and digital devices, faster fibre deployment, regulatory clarity on data protection and cybersecurity, and stronger public-private collaboration to help position Pakistan as a competitive regional digital economy.
Reference Link:- https://propakistani.pk/2026/04/01/pakistans-tech-sector-can-reach-7-of-gdp-by-2030-oicci/
Zamir Ahmed Awan is the founder and Chair of the Global Silk Route Research Alliance, a think tank in Islamabad. He studied engineering at Shanghai University in the 1980s, and years later he went back to China as Pakistan's science counsellor in Beijing, from 2010 until 2016, working on science and higher education cooperation between the two countries.…
