China keen to overhaul Pakistans’s digital infrastructure

ISLAMABAD:

Chinese hi-tech companies including Oppo and Haier are interested in investing in Pakistan’s first-ever Digital City, according to K-P IT Board spokesperson Danish.

He said that the Pakistan Digital City project is presently in its planning stage. K-P has allocated an area of more than 43,000 square metres for first phase of the project in Haripur, a few miles north of Islamabad, he said.

The area has been fenced and development work is under way. This is an ideal location, being close to the communication equipment producers like Telephone Industries of Pakistan (TIP) and National Radio and Telecommunication Corporation (NRTC). The project site is also adjacent to the planned Pak-Austria Fachhochschule Institute of Applied Sciences and Technology.

Danish said that consultancy firm National Engineering Services of Pakistan (Nespak) is responsible for planning and designing the project, while NRTC will be a key implementing partner.

The Pakistan Digital City will host various information and communication technology (ICT) companies and form various clusters such as electronics cluster, software development cluster and research and innovation cluster, he said. It will create 50,000 direct and indirect jobs, the spokesperson said.