The foundation stone for Pakistan’s largest information technology park has been laid in Karachi by Federal Minister of Information Technology and Telecommunication Syed Amin Ul Haque "to make the city a gateway for an innovative future."

More than 20,000 IT professionals will get job opportunities upon the completion of the Rs 42 billion project in June 2026, a press release received by WealthPK said.

Addressing the ground-breaking ceremony, the minister congratulated the nation and said the IT Park would help strengthen the economy. The park will benefit not only the citizens of Karachi, but also IT professionals and companies across Pakistan, he added.

Syed Amin said that IT parks provide places where innovative businesses could develop and prosper. Most IT parks provide ample space for business development. Governments all over the world often invest in these technology parks to boost their regional and national economies.

The services offered by the parks are closely linked to the functions that they have to fulfill, he said, adding that the benefits of the technology parks are not limited to enterprises and tenants of the parks, but also for companies outside the parks. The benefits of technology parks included boosting the knowledge-based economy, entrepreneurship, and use of the latest technologies, he added.

The minister said the IT Park Karachi is an eleven-storey self-contained building with a covered area of 106,449 square meters. It will provide office space to about 225 start-ups and small to medium enterprises and other ancillary facilities like testing laboratories, classrooms, an industry-academia linkage center, an auditorium, etc.

Regarding the projects related to ICT and connectivity in the last four years, he said that the IT ministry, through the Universal Service Fund, has launched 70 optical fiber cable (OFC) and broadband projects in four provinces at a cost of Rs 65 billion.

He said that for the first time in Pakistan, smartphone manufacturing licenses have been issued, under which 29 companies are now manufacturing smartphones and digital devices in Pakistan. National incubation centers have also been established in Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad, Peshawar, Quetta, and recently in Faisalabad and Hyderabad as well, he added.

As a result of these initiatives, he said, the volume of IT exports has reached $2.62 billion, which is an increase of 47%, while 30 software technology parks have been established across the country under a public-private partnership.

With an increase of 800%, the amount of investment for Pakistani start-ups has reached $818 million in four years, he added.

The minister said steps have been taken to provide IT training facilities of international standard to fresh IT graduates. The Center of Excellence project for youth training at the University of Karachi is under consideration. "We have registered 3.1 million people in the DG Skills Programme," he said.

Credit : Independent News Pakistan-WealthPk