by Khalid Aziz

ISLAMABAD, Oct. 20 (Gwadar Pro) – Chinese high-tech companies including OPPO and Haier are interested in investing in Pakistan's first-ever digital city, according to the spokesperson of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP)'s IT Board Danish.

He said that the Pakistan Digital City(PDC) project is presently in the planning stage.

Danish said KP has allocated more than 43,000-square-meter area for the first phase of the project in Haripur, a few miles north of Islamabad. The area has been fenced and development works are underway. 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 a Pakistani consultancy firm NESPAK is responsible for planning and designing of the project, while the NRTC will be a key implementing partner.

The PDC will host various 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 and more than $500 million in annual revenue, he said.

Waheed Zaman, a senior official associated with the project, said that the PDC would become a milestone in digital transformation of the country as per the plan designed by Pakistani and Chinese experts. According to him, the KP government is consulting with potential Chinese investors, communication technology firms, software houses and related companies to establish their businesses here.

Haleem Khan, Assistant Professor of computer Sciences in Iqra University, Islamabad said that thousands of IT and computer science students were jobless and such projects in the country will help them to get jobs and play their role in making Pakistan a prosperous country in the region.

Ahmad Ali Baizai, an official at the KP IT department, said that this project was designed under Prime Minister Imran Khan's vision of Digital Pakistan which is going to be a huge platform for young generation of the country to make their futures brighter.