ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and China have agreed to enable development of a range of initiatives in the ICT (information and communications technology) sphere to create an e-corridor to supplement the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC.
This agreed during a meeting between a high level Chinese delegation, led by China Investment Promotion Centre Chairman Yan Lijin, and State Minister for IT Anusha Rehman. Both sides discussed matters relating to collaboration between Pakistani and Chinese public and corporate sector stakeholders in the areas of innovation, IT parks, electronic payments and other ICT services and infrastructure of mutual interest.
Member Telecom Mudassar Hussain and Pakistan Software Export Board (PSEB) MD Asim Shehryar were also present in the meeting.
The minister apprised the delegates that Pakistan’s IT & telecom sector has lot of potential and now we have to explore the ways to reap this possible mutual dividend from the tech sectors in an optimal way. She said that we believe in “Digital Pakistan” and Chinese cooperation and collaboration will help us to materialize this vision of “accelerated digitization”.
On a Chinese proposal of enabling public-private partnership and joint venture investment mechanism fully participated by the Chinese IT and innovation outfits, the minister assured the delegation that any proposals will be thoroughly and quickly analyzed to ensure full transparency and conformity to Pakistani legal system. Ministry of IT and PSEB will ensure collaboration with the Chinese counterparts for synchronized efforts on all areas relating to ICT infrastructure and particularly technology park development.
Anusha Rehman further said that we are already collaborating with Ministry of Commerce for the development of e-commerce gateway framework so that online commercial ventures could flourish further and consumers and companies could get more confidence in online payment systems. Then we would like to invite international companies to establish their set ups here in Pakistan as well. She ensured that any Chinese player wanting to invest in establishment of Internet Payment systems and ecommerce gateways will receive full facilitation being a core component of the e-commerce value chain.
The delegates appreciated the vision of the government and hailed the initiatives being taken by the Ministry of Information Technology for uplifting of IT & telecom sector.
