On Thursday, Prime Minister Imran Khan inaugurated Lahore Technopolis, a special technology zone, to create jobs and boost Pakistan’s tech exports. This is now the second tech zone after the Islamabad Technopolis, and the Special Technology Zones Authority (STZA) has announced plans to set up 14 world-class tech zones across the country in the coming months. It is encouraging to see the government invest in these zones as it is expected they will create jobs, boost tech exports, and develop the country’s technology industry and entrepreneurship ecosystem.
The government plans on offering 10-year tax breaks at the tech zone for local and foreign firms as incentives to the tech industry and to enhance the ease of doing business. Lahore also makes sense as a location given how the tech sector flourished due the investment put into PITB and ITU under the previous government. Still, a lot more will need to be done if the government wants to realise its vision of transforming Pakistan into a knowledge-based economy by fostering innovation and research and development.
There are positive indicators such as the fact that our IT exports crossed the $2 billion mark for the first time this year. However, to truly harness the potential of the digital economy, we will need to take more concrete measures. SEZs have been developed in the past too and the results were not up to the expectations.
To achieve this ambitious goal, we will need to go a step further and formulate policies to facilitate technology transfer in the tech sector. This will add immense value and allow us to develop a culture of innovation going forward. What we need is the production of indigenous research so that we are in a position to compete globally. This however is a long-term project and will require us to chalk out a plan and implement policies starting today, so that we can reap the dividends down the line.