ISLAMABAD  -  The caretaker Federal Informa­tion Technology and Telecom­munication Minister Dr Umar Saif on Sunday announced that freelancers would now receive their payments through PayPal. 

In a video message, he said that it had been a longstanding demand of freelancers to have access to PayPal for easier pay­ment receipt in Pakistan. The minister clarified, “While Pay­Pal itself is not coming to Paki­stan, an agreement has been reached where remittances would be channeled through PayPal via a third party.” 

“Under the newly devised programme, freelancers will not need to open a PayPal account. Instead, individuals outside the country will make payments from their PayPal accounts, and the funds will be promptly de­posited into the freelancers’ ac­counts,” the minister explained. He said that under the nation’s first space policy approved by the federal cabinet, internation­al companies would be allowed to provide communication ser­vices through low-orbit com­munication satellites.

Saif said that satellite com­munication technology was advancing rapidly and many private companies in the world wanted to provide communica­tion services through low-orbit satellites. “Satellites used to be geostationary, far away from the land. They are useful for broadcasting TV signals but communicating is difficult be­cause there is latency,” he said.

Saif said that communication services and internet services could be offered through low-orbit satellites, which were rel­atively closer. He said that there had been a lot of development in this regard in the private sec­tor. “So now it has become pos­sible for communication ser­vices in Pakistan to be provided through satellites and the pri­vate sector has this technology,” he said. He said the National Space Policy would enable pri­vate sector companies to “offer affordable internet services in Pakistan while enabling in­creased investment in our na­tional space programme”.

National Space Policy which will enable private-sector companies to offer affordable internet services in Pakistan, while enabling increased in­vestment in the country’s na­tional space programme. He expressed confidence that 5G services in the country would be launched by July this year and 300MHz spectrum would be offered for auction. He said that before the launch of 5G services, the optic fiber network had to be enhanced. Currently, only 6,000 mobile towers are connected with the optic fiber of around 56,000 towers across the country.

Dr Saif said his ministry had taken a significant decision to revamp IT education in univer­sities in collaboration with the Higher Education Commission, National Computing Accredi­tation Council, Exami¬nation Testing Council, Pakistan Soft­ware Export Board, and Paki­stan Software Houses Associa­tion. “Under the programme, around 31,000 students have registered themselves for the test so far, and successful among them will be offered jobs through the Industry Placement Programme.”

Dr Saif disclosed that the government would initiate a project to establish 10,000 e-Rozgar centres across the country that would be equipped with the latest facili­ties for freelancers and start­ups. The minister while high­lighting the initiatives taken by the government to bolster exports of the IT and telecom sector, said, “The sector’s of­ficial export is currently $2.6 billion, but the actual figure is around $5 billion as the indus­try parks a major portion out­side the country to pay salaries of their international employ­ees placed with foreign clients and incur monthly expenses for cloud hosting, marketing and sales on platforms like Google, Amazon, LinkedIn etc.”