Pak, China agree on e-corridor

Islamabad: Keeping in view the importance of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) in terms of regional connectivity, Pakistan and China on Wednesday agreed to enable development of a range of initiatives to create an e-corridor to supplement the CPEC.

A high level Chinese delegation led by Yan Lijin, chairman of the China Investment Promotion Centre, called on Minister of State for Information Technology Anusha Rehman here in Islamabad. The two sides discussed matters relating to collaboration between Pakistani and Chinese public and corporate sectors in the areas of innovation, information technology parks, electronic payments, information and communications technology services and infrastructure.

Telecom member Mudassar Hussain and Pakistan Software Export Board Managing Director Asim Shehryar were also present at the meeting.

The minister informed the delegates that Pakistan’s information technology and telecom sectors had a lot of potential and now it was time to explore the ways to make maximum use of this potential. She said that she believed in “Digital Pakistan” and Chinese cooperation and collaboration would help her ministry materialize this vision of “accelerated digitisation”.

Referring to the Chinese proposal to enable the public-private partnership and joint venture investment mechanism fully supported by the Chinese IT and innovation companies, the minister assured the delegation that the proposal would be analysed thoroughly and quickly. She said that her ministry would ensure collaboration between Pakistani and Chinese experts on ICT infrastructure and technology parks.

Rehman said that her ministry was collaborating with commerce ministry for the development of an e-commerce gateway framework so that online commercial ventures could flourish and consumers and companies could gain more confidence in the online payment system. Later, she said, Pakistan would invite foreign companies to work here. She said that Pakistan would fully facilitate the Chinese people interested in investment in the Internet payments system and e-commerce gateways here.