China’s Huawei Company has expressed the desire to collaborate with the Government of Pakistan in Islamabad Smart City project.

This desire was expressed by a four-member delegation of Huawei Pakistan, led by Chief Executive Officer Ethan Sun, that called on Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in Islamabad today.

The Prime Minister was briefed that services like traffic, health, education, parking and other facilities will be available at a digital platform under the Islamabad Smart City Project.

The delegation also offered to establish a National Data Centre, which will be harmonized with Pakistan’s National Cloud Strategy.

It was informed that establishment of National Data Centre would ensure provision of better cloud services and help save foreign exchange.

Speaking on the occasion, the Prime Minister said his recent visit to Huawei’s headquarters was very fruitful. He said partnership with Huawei in various sectors, especially provision of modern training in the field of Information Technology to the youth, is of cardinal importance. He said IT exports of the country will increase with the professional training of information technology to 300,000 Pakistani students annually by Huawei. He said the government will include women and youth from Balochistan to this training programme on priority basis.

Shehbaz Sharif said his government attaches great value to sustainable cooperation with the Huawei in Pakistan’s digital economy. He said digital economy can be promoted by establishing a strong foundation of talented manpower in the country. He said digitization of government institutions is need of the hour to ensure an automatic, modern and swift governance system.

The Prime Minister was further apprised that Massive Open Online Courses System has been prepared for training in the IT sector, which will be enforced in cooperation with the provincial governments.