Chinese company Chengdu has expressed the commitment to invest 700 million dollars for IT and smart city projects in Punjab.

This commitment was made during a meeting of high-level Chinese delegation with Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif in Islamabad today.

The delegation included Chengdu General Coordinator for the ICT Hub Ms Scarlett and Deputy CEO of Huawei Mr Yu Ray.

The Chief Minister in-principle assented for the investment, paving the way for several initiatives in the province.

An e-taxi service will soon be introduced. Besides cloud and data centers will be established at the Nawaz Sharif IT City in Lahore, while the Punjab Government will provide land and buildings for the project.

The first e-commerce platform in Pakistan will be established, providing training to Pakistani youth on online worldwide trading.

Furthermore, the smart city initiatives in Lahore will include a smart control room, smart traffic management, smart transport, and a smart sanitation center.

The meeting also discussed establishing an AI industry center in Phase Two of the project to train youth in artificial intelligence technologies.

The Chinese government is committed to capacity-building for platform services in Punjab.

Speaking on the occasion, Maryam Nawaz Sharif expressed the resolve to make Punjab as the IT hub of the region.