Ayesha Saba

Pakistan's efforts to stimulate digital transformation under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) will improve the business environment, and attract domestic and foreign investments, thus speeding up the economy's sustainable development, said Adnan Khan, a socioeconomic development specialist at the CPEC Centre of Excellence. Talking to WealthPK, he said, “The initial phase of CPEC (2015–2020) was primarily concerned with addressing bottlenecks and urgent problems, including the energy crisis and connectivity challenges. The focus of the second phase is considerably broader as it highlights industry collaboration, export diversification and promotion, growth trajectory and expansion.” The CPEC official disclosed that there were four new joint working groups on digitisation of industrial and agriculture sectors and development of information technology and science and technology sectors under the CPEC’s second phase. “Worldwide, rapid advancements in technology are creating new business opportunities while technology-enabled innovation is the major spur for productive growth,” he pointed out.

He added that Pakistan has tremendous potential in both conventional and digital spheres. “The cross-border optical fiber, which was laid between Gilgit-Baltistan and Rawalpindi, is now being extended to Karachi and Gwadar under the CPEC's second phase. China will also help Pakistan initiate projects related to artificial intelligence,” he said.. "China's digital economy and new digital emerging market represent a fast-progressive path for the country's growth. It is playing a very crucial role in the economic recovery as well. Developing countries like Pakistan need to follow China's experience in unleashing digital innovation,” he continued. Speaking about Pakistan's progress towards digitisation, Kaukab Ikram Mughal, an honorary secretary at the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport, told WealthPK that the world was fast moving towards a paperless environment and digital technologies, and Pakistan should follow suit. “A big challenge facing Pakistan's digital economy is inadequate digital infrastructure.” “Compared to some neighbouring countries, Pakistan's investment in digital infrastructure has been relatively low.

To address this issue, the government and private sector need to invest significantly in expanding and upgrading the digital infrastructure, including the rollout of fiber-optic networks and the improvement of mobile network coverage,” he suggested. It is also to be noted here that Chinese and Pakistani scholars have proposed establishment of CPEC Centre for Digital Transformation to help enhance the digitalisation and transparency of the CPEC projects. The centre will aim to attract more investors and businesses to CPEC by using information and communication technologies (ICT) to manage and monitor the progress and outcomes of the various initiatives taken under the mega project. Moreover, the Pakistan Vision 2025 aims to make the country a strategic enabler for an accelerated digitisation ecosystem to expand the knowledge-based economy and spur socio-economic growth. Since the launch of the digitisation policy, Pakistan has seen its IT exports increase by 70% during the last three years, creating immense opportunities for the tech-savvy generation, mostly under 30, who make up 64% of Pakistan's total population. According to the Centre of Economic Research in Pakistan, the country's economy has to be fast-digitised for sustainable growth.

Credit: INP-WealthPk