ISLAMABAD ( BMZ REPORT )
Minister of State for IT Anusha Rehman and members of the IT Ministry had a very fruitful meeting with a team from Korean Eximbank for starting feasibility study for a new state-of-the-art IT Park in Islamabad this year, said a press release issued here on Thursday.
The Korean team included Seoung-ho Jin, Director General (DG), Ministry of Strategy and Finance; Park Song-yun, Director Korea Eximbank and four other members.Earlier, the team had toured the site for the proposed IT Park in Islamabad,
The IT minister welcomed the Korean delegation to IT Ministry and shared with them ministry’s vision to provide good infrastructure to the IT industry to leverage the full potential of Pakistan’s IT talent. She said that IT parks provide a whole ecosystem, including affordable space to IT companies along with backup power, bandwidth, and bridges linkages between the industry and academia. IT park in Islamabad will be the first of the three IT parks with future IT parks being planned for Karachi and Lahore and the ministry is concluding process to acquire the land for establishment of further IT parks at Lahore and Karachi.
The Korean team was informed that Pakistan is ranked fourth globally, in terms of freelancing revenue for IT and that IT exports which have grown by 35% since last year. Pakistan Software Export Board (PSEB), MD, Asim Shahryar Husain, said that there is an aggregate demand for more than a million square feet of office space by more than three hundred IT companies in twin cities of Islamabad and Pindi at present.
An IT park of this scale has exports potential of up to $120 million a year per IT Park.Seoung-ho Jin, DG Ministry of Strategy and Finance Korea said that he is very glad and impressed with IT potential and talent of Pakistan and that Eximbank will be appointing a Korean consultant by July this year to start the feasibility study and formalities in this regard.
The Korean ambassador Song Jong Hawan said that Korea and Pakistan had similar economies in the sixties, but Korea’s economy had taken off in the last 50 years because of growth in technology. Pakistan has a lot of IT talent and IT parks would be a good way of leveraging that talent to boost Pakistan’s IT exports. He appreciated the passion with which IT Ministry is committed to realise their vision of accelerated digitisation with IT parks as one of the key elements and hoped that the IT Park will further augment the long lasting and strong relationship between Pakistan and Korea.