China’s multinational technology giant is willing to bring global information and communications technology (ICT) forum and global top experts of the field to Pakistan.
This was disclosed during a meeting between President Dr. Arif Alvi and a member of Huawei’s Supervisory Board Steven Yia and his delegation at the Aiwani-e-Sadr in Islamabad.
Steven Yia said that Huawei will continue to promote technology transfer and cultivate local talent in the information and communications technology through ICT Academies, Seeds for the Future, competitions and the Presidential Initiative for Artificial Intelligence & Computing.
The Chinese official informed the president about Huawei’s globally consistent growth in 2019. He also briefed the president of Huawei’s contribution to the ICT industry, technology transfer, and ICT talent training in Pakistan.
Steven Yi shared his opinions about the challenges of Digital Pakistan, a government’s initiative aimed at introducing the latest technology for public welfare. The president appreciated Huawei’s contribution to Pakistan’s ICT industry and local talent cultivation.
Dr. Arif Alvi said that information and communication technologies are pivotal for the progress and development of the nations. He suggested the cooperation between the Ministry of Information Technology, Huawei and other stakeholders for the realization of the Digital Pakistan initiative.
In this regard, he asked Huawei to send its top experts of the information and communications technology to work with the National Information Technology Board (NITB), the Digital Pakistan team and President’s ICT Talent Training Program (PIAIC).
MAKING GWADAR AS PAKISTAN’S SHENZHEN
In his article published in the China Economic Net, visiting professor at the Southwest University of Political Science and Law Cheng Xizhong said that there is a need to further speed up the construction of the Gwadar Port and make it Shenzhen of Pakistan.
He said that the port is an extremely important platform to extend the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) westward to a more distant region and becomes an important platform for regional connectivity. At the same time, the construction speed of the port determines the development speed of Pakistan as a whole.
Since December 1st, the proportion of zero-tariff commodities between Pakistan and China will gradually increase from 35% to 75%, thus substantially raising the level of trade liberalization. Trade liberalization is a development trend, which has both advantages and disadvantages.
“In my opinion, the advantages are primary. First, it is conducive to the introduction of advanced technology and management experience. Second, it is conducive for promoting reform and improving competitiveness. Third, it is conducive for the vast number of consumers to get cheap and high-quality products,” he wrote in his article.
“China’s reform and opening-up began in Shenzhen. At that time, we had a saying Shenzhen speed, which means that China’s development speed is very fast. At that time, there was a modern high-rise with one floor built in less than five days on average,” the visiting professor wrote.
In the early 1980s, Shenzhen was just a small fishing village. After about 25 years of its development, it became a modern city, which led to the rapid economic development of the whole country. The construction of the Gwadar Port began at the beginning of this century and it has been nearly 20 years now. There is a need to further speed up the construction of the port.
