Chinese firm set to invest over Rs194bn in Punjab following CM’s visit

LAHORE: Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz’s visit to China is yielding positive results, as evidenced by her recent meeting at Punjab House in Islamabad with a high-level Chinese delegation, including Ms Scarlett, the Chengdu General Coordinator for the ICT Hub, and Yu Ray, the Deputy CEO of Huawei.

The delegation from Chengdu expressed its willingness to invest $700 million and granted preliminary approval for the investment.

An e-taxi service will be launched with the cooperation of Chengdu. Additionally, a Chinese company will establish a ‘Computing Centre’ in Lahore’s Nawaz Sharif IT City. During the meeting, it was also agreed to establish a Data and Cloud Centre in Nawaz Sharif IT City, with the Punjab government providing land and buildings for its establishment. The first e-commerce platform in Pakistan will also be established.

The Chinese company will provide training to Pakistani youth for online worldwide trading. Smart control rooms, smart traffic control, smart transport and smart sanitation centres will be established in Lahore with Chinese cooperation.

During their visit to China, CM Punjab, Transport Minister Bilal Akbar and the delegation were briefed about the latest digital centre. An AI industry centre will be set up in Phase II to introduce youth to artificial intelligence.

The Chinese government will assist in platform service capacity building in Punjab. Assistance in local investment for the establishment of industries was also reviewed in Phase III.

Maryam Nawaz stated, “We aim to make Punjab the biggest artificial intelligence centre with the cooperation of China. Punjab will soon become an IT hub in the region, and we want our youth to excel and surpass in the IT sector.”