The ICT Sector has the potential to become a sustainable source of high growth for Afghanistan, an issue that has been of great debate globally that how will the country ensure peace, stability, security and high levels of economic growth. IT/ITeS is defined as manufacturing of computer and electronics hardware; offshoring and participating in global software development (GSD) that spans out into call centers and business process outsourcing (BPO). The sector will need a strong domestic software development ecosystem including the provision of IT support systems for small, medium and enterprise organizations and firms across other sectors is established; while further enabling an industry sub-sector of localized digital content production in local languages spoken and understood by the citizens of Afghanistan.
In order to achieve success in development of these ICT sub-sectors, ICT/IT/ITeS must be declared as a high priority sector for national development and sustainable growth. There is potential for the Government of Afghanistan to generate social and economic growth in this space as it has a relatively up-to-date telecommunications infrastructure to provide Internet access and connectivity throughout the country. The necessary steps to be undertaken at this stage is to develop a pragmatic strategy that can help establish a national software and hardware development ecosystem.
Aligning ICT/IT/ITeS will have a significant impact on all sectors of society that will potentially generate direct and indirect employment, local and global investment trust in Afghanistan’s economy and modern infrastructure availability, increase the capacity of advanced skills amongst the population and new sources of tax and revenue for the government that can be redirected towards strengthening the country.