PCJCCI proposes digital economy model

LAHORE: The Pakistan China Joint Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCJCCI) on Thursday called for transforming the industrial economy of Pakistan to the digital economy, following the example of China, which has achieved remarkable results in this field.

Moazzam Ghurki, president of PCJCCI, said at a think tank meeting that Pakistan should set up integrated computing network hubs across the country to boost the digital economy and provide new impetus for the sector’s development.

“The big data industry will be a key driving force in the transition from an industrial economy to a digital economy. It would make a big push to continuously accelerate the development of 5G networks and 1,000M fiber optic networks to create a new intelligent ecosystem,” he said.

Ghurki said that data center computing equipment will be key accelerators for the development of new technologies and industries such as artificial intelligence, big data and blockchain, and help fuel digital transformation and high-quality development.

He suggested to replicate the Chinese model of setting up national computing network hubs in key areas, such as the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, the Yangtze River Delta region, the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, the Chengdu-Chongqing city cluster, Guizhou province and the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, in major business cities of Pakistan, including Lahore, Karachi, Peshawar, Quetta, Faisalabad, Sialkot, Hyderabad and Gilgit Baltistan.

Fang Yulong, senior vice president of PCJCCI, said that the national computing network will boost the free flow of data and smoothen the economic circulation, with the hubs also playing a key role as the new drivers of economic growth and supporting the national big data strategy.

He added that China has planned to build national integrated computing network hubs as part of the government’s ongoing efforts to accelerate the “new infrastructure” construction and promote green, high-quality development of the digital economy.

"We can also adopt this technique to boost the development of super-large and large-scale data centers and build data center clusters in key regions, supporting businesses such as industrial internet, financial securities, disaster warning, telemedicine and video calls."

Hamza Khalid, vice president of PCJCCI, said that the new move will help to achieve a structural balance between data centers in eastern and western regions, boost innovation in big data applications, improve efficiency in the use of computing resources and promote green, high-quality development. He added that during the 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016-20), China's big data sector saw a compound annual growth rate of more than 30 percent, and earned 1 trillion yuan ($156 billion) in annual sales last year.