'Big opportunity for Pakistan to become global connectivity corridor'

Caretaker Minister for IT and Telecommunication Dr Umar Saif Wednesday said that there is a plan afoot to make Pakistan a digital connectivity corridor for the world.

The minister revealed that the country has a great opportunity to become a global digital connectivity corridor as the country has fibre connectivity from Kashgar to Karachi.

"We often talk about CPEC trade corridor, but equally big opportunity is for Pakistan to become a digital corridor of connectivity for China, Russia and Central Asian States with the rest of the world," the minister wrote on his official account on X on Wednesday.

Saif said that the country now has fibre connectivity from Kashgar to Karachi and can offer low latency connectivity for China transit traffic with the evolving network of submarine cables connecting Africa and Europe.

"Our digital corridor can reduce the latency from 120 [minutes] to just 20 [minutes].

The minister termed this "a huge opportunity for Pakistan".

The statement came after Dr Saif's meeting with all the internet service providers, special communication organisation representatives and submarine cable operators.

The minister said that the implementation of the proposed project would benefit Pakistan by several million dollars.

He said that global traffic can be linked to the submarine cable with the help of an optical fibre cable network present from Khunjerab to Karachi and Gwadar.

Saif further stated that all the resources and required facilities have been provided for the digital corridor. "Soon Pakistani people will be given good news about global networks."