KARACHI: Economic diversification under Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 will provide “myriad opportunities” for information technology companies, the CEO of a Pakistani tech giant said on Tuesday, highlighting “diversification and specialization” as key to benefiting from these opportunities.
Saudi Arabia is strengthening its economy in a modern way under Vision 2030, a strategic development framework aimed at reducing the Kingdom's reliance on oil. The vision aims to develop the Kingdom's public service sectors, including healthcare, education, infrastructure, recreation and tourism.
In an interview with Arab News, Pakistani IT tycoon Asif Peer said it is a “big market” for companies in all sectors, especially the IT industry. Peer Systems Limited was founded in 1977 and is Pakistan's first IT company, with a market capitalization of Rs128 billion ($444 million) and revenue of Rs20.64 billion ($69 million) for FY2022.
“I would say that most of the money being spent by Saudi Arabian conglomerates, companies and most importantly the public sector, the government, which is doing a lot of the work, is going towards technology,” Peer said.
“If everyone was aware of what was going on, there would be plenty of opportunities for everyone,” he said, adding that “diversification and specialization are key.”
Pia's company derives more than 80 percent of its revenue from exporting services to various countries in North America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, with less than 20 percent coming from the domestic market. The company already has a significant presence in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Egypt, Singapore, South Africa, Australia and the Netherlands.
Peer, however, said that to benefit, Pakistani companies must recognise the opportunities that come as part of Vision 2030. Vision 2030 has many dimensions, not just infrastructure development but also technology, business, digital transformation and gender diversity, he said.
“They all need technology in their backbone, their backbone. We need to know about these projects, we need to sign up with all these companies, all the big consulting partners,” he said, “so we know what projects are coming and we can position ourselves.”
According to the CEO, Systems Limited established a company in Saudi Arabia last year called Systems Arabia, which has won significant contracts in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.
The company is currently looking to acquire customers in both the public and private sectors, and a healthy pipeline will help drive momentum in Saudi Arabia.
“They're all expanding and they're all focused on technology and digitalization and AI, so there's ample opportunity to double and triple their investments in these markets,” Pia said.
“The Egyptian center is not only a market for us but also a supply center,” he said, adding that the company employs hundreds of people at the center supporting GCC customers, mainly because of the language and much-needed mix of cultures.
Peer's company is using Egypt as a foothold to focus on acquisitions in other regional markets.
“We are really focusing on these markets right now and acquiring more companies in these markets or related sectors because we believe that both organic and inorganic growth will deliver better results,” he told Arab News.
Asked about the challenges his company faces in the Gulf region, Pia said there are no major challenges in the Middle East.
Talking about its growth plans both at home and abroad, the CEO of Systems Limited said the company is in fast growth mode, exceeding its expectations.
“There are two sides to scaling and growing – demand and supply. So on the supply side, we are scaling robustly, not just by hiring people but by a lot of training programmes that we run for all capacities across all disciplines,” he said.
Peer revealed that his company was recently awarded the “Microsoft Partner of the Year” award in recognition of its development and delivery of outstanding Microsoft-based applications, services and devices over the past year.
