ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: The Ministry of Information Technology and Korea Exim Bank on Tuesday signed a loan agreement worth Rs 10 billion for setting up the first state-of-the-art Information Technology (IT) Park in the Federal Capital.
In his remarks during the signing ceremony held in Islamabad, the Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said that the federal government has a clear programme to digital and financially inclusive Pakistan.
The minister said that it was during previous tenure of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) that Awami Markaz building in Islamabad was converted into a software park and now a proper multi-purpose park is to be established with the assistance of South Korea.
The finance minister said that Pakistan looks forward towards Korea for closer cooperation. He pointed out that Korean helped construct Pakistan’s first motorway known as Islamabad-Lahore Motorway.
The Minister of State for Information Technology Anusha Rehman said that the modern technology park would be an integrated facility and help realize the dream of digital Pakistan.
Anusha Rehman said that after Islamabad, international standard information technology parks would also be set up in Karachi and Lahore. He said that Islamabad Park will spread over 42 acres of land, and have a data centre and capacity to accommodate more than 100 IT companies.
The representative of the Korean Exim Bank said that his institution decided to cooperate with Pakistan in IT field in view of vast potential of the country in the sector. He said that there are more than 2,000 IT companies in Pakistan and universities are producing hundreds of thousands of IT personnel.
The Korean Exim Bank’s representative said that the Korean Exim Bank is ready to contribute towards socio-economic development of Pakistan.
