E-Corridor To Supplement China-Pak Economic Corridor

The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is of great importance to the principal stakeholders. In an attempt to increase regional connectivity between the countries, recent meetings with the Chinese delegation also discussed the supplementary e-corridor component.

Details about the CPEC Meeting

The Chinese delegation led by Chairman of China Investment Promotion Centre, Yan Lijin, recently met with the Pakistani Minister for Information and Technology, Anusha Rehman. The delegation discussed how to enhance cooperation between China and Pakistan’s public and commercial sectors related to IT parks, electronic payments, innovation and similar IT services. Both parties discussed ways to enable development of a range of initiatives in the ICT sphere.

Mrs. Anusha Rehman said that the government believes in a “Digital Pakistan” and any assistance or collaboration from the Chinese will help in materializing the vision of “accelerated digitization”.

The Chinese delegation put forward a proposal for establishing public-private partnership and a joint venture investment mechanism which is completely backed by Chinese IT and innovation groups. The Pakistani IT Minister guaranteed that any proposals from the Chinese delegation in this regard will be thoroughly and swiftly evaluated to ensure complete transparency and conformity with the country’s legal system.

Is Pakistan’s IT Sector Up for the Challenge?

The delegates pointed out that Pakistan has a lot of potential in the IT and Telecom sector and joint efforts need to be made to optimize the financial output from these tech sectors. Ministry of IT and Pakistan Software Export Board (PSEB) will work with their Chinese counterparts for coordinated efforts on everything related to ICT industry and technology park development.

The Information Technology ministry is already working alongside the Ministry of Commerce in order to develop an e-commerce gateway framework so that online commercial projects can flourish. This framework will also help in increasing the consumers’ and businesses’ confidence in online payment systems.

Mrs. Anusha Rehman assured the Chinese delegation that international companies will be invited to invest in e-commerce initiatives and that any Chinese party interested in investing in establishing an Internet Payment system or an e-commerce gateway will receive full assistance for being an essential element of the e-commerce value chain.

The delegates from China appreciated the Pakistani government’s vision and its efforts in improving the IT and Telecom sector of Pakistan.