ISLAMABAD   -   Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Monday said that the completion of Information Technology Park project in Islamabad would help boost country’s exports in this sector and prove as significant milestone in achieving $25 billion IT exports target.

The prime minister, while chairing a meeting to review the ongoing projects of Information Technology, digitization and steps to increase IT exports, termed the progress on IT project in Islamabad as satisfactory.

He further directed for taking steps to reduce its completion time-frame after consultation with the Korean experts, PM Office Media Wing said in a press release. The meeting was attended by Ministers Ahsan Iqbal, Ahad Khan Cheema, Muhammad Aurangzeb, Attaullah Tarar, Minister of State for IT Shaza Fatima Khawaja, Deputy Chairman Planning Jehanzaib Khan, PM’s Coordinators Malik Mukhtar Bharath, Rana Ahsan Afzal and relevant senior officials.  

The meeting was apprised that work on the IT park project was in full swing and the Korean company had reset its completion date to February 2025 from earlier June 2025.

The Capital Development Authority’s (CDA) teams were regularly visiting and monitoring the project site.

The meeting was further briefed over the digital smart cities and the commencement of its pilot project from Islamabad, which would enable the residents of the city to get easy access to 150 government’s services through City Super Application.

Through this mobile application, the governmental and administrative services including CDA, Islamabad Police, health and educational services would be made available.  

The prime minister said that the citizens should be encouraged to use mobile application for availing of the government’s services.

The meeting was also apprised of the IT sector performance over the past five months. Under the government’s steps, IT exports saw a growth of 30 percent when compared with the figures in the last year.

A total of 300,000 students had been registered to get training in IT skills programmes while four new incubation centers had been set up. Under the government’s steps, the manufacturing of mobile phones in the country saw a surge by 30 percent whereas the number of its users had increased by further 800,000.

Under the prime minister’s vision, all the relevant institutions and departments were collectively working on different projects to take Pakistan’s IT exports to $25 billion mark.

The meeting was briefed over investment in IT projects and the phased wise increase in IT exports. With government’s investment of $77 million in IT sector, an increase in IT exports upto $25 billion was expected.

About $13 billion foreign reserves from government’s steps in IT exports, $10 billion from country’s digital transformation and $2 billion foreign reserves in telecom sector were expected, the meeting was told.  

The meeting was informed that throughout the country, federal government’s services including financial, health, agriculture, education, administration and security were being made available to the citizens through mobile application and in this respect, a project was in the final stages.

The prime minister directed for accomplishment of all steps in the IT sector within the stipulated period.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif directed to bring 50 percent of all public sector cargo inland by sea through Gwadar port. He was chairing an important review meeting regarding Chinese investment in Pakistan, in Islamabad today.

The prime minister was given a detailed briefing on the visit of the delegation of Chinese experts to Pakistan.

It was informed that a delegation of Chinese experts visited Pakistan from 30th of last month to 6th of this month. The Chinese delegation met representatives of various ministries in which the ministries gave suggestions regarding increasing cooperation in related fields.

During the visit of the delegation, significant progress was made in terms of cooperation and investment in the fields of trade and investment, energy, agriculture, information technology, communication and infrastructure.

It was briefed that services of Chinese experts will be hired to increase domestic exports and eliminate non-trade barriers. Sectoral road shows will be organized in different cities of China to increase exports of Pakistani products.

It was apprised that Chinese companies have increased interest in relocating Chinese industries to Pakistan. Pakistani students and research scholars will be trained in the field of agriculture in China for which 572 applications have been received so far.

The Prime Minister directed to give equal participation to students from all provinces for this training.