Call to deepen digital city partnership under CPEC
"The theme of our conference, build a digitally friendly city, highlights the harmonious coexistence between people and technology in the city, which is what we often call people-oriented in the digital age. We also highly agree with this in Pakistan's national development strategy," said Aslam Chaudhary, Economic Minister at Pakistan Embassy's Economic Wing.
In his speech at the ongoing Global Digital Economy Conference in Beijing on July 2, the minister pointed out that building digitally friendly cities is not just about technology, but also about creating an environment where all citizens, whether urban or rural, could use safe and reliable digital technologies.
Given this, Pakistan is fulfilling its national commitment to continuously expand the scope of digital economy services and try to cover every remotest area. Nowadays, the Pakistani government has established an inclusive service fund to strengthen the information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure and under the framework of the Six One One Foundation, the fund is playing its role.
"Through this, we have laid optical cables in large areas of the country, connecting about 22,000 villages," Chaudhary said. "By building digital-friendly cities, different cities are able to recognise each other's data standards. At the same time, cooperation agreements between countries are an indispensable boost to the digitalisation of developing countries."
In April, the Secretary-General of the Riyadh-based Digital Cooperation Organisation (DCO), Deemah AlYahya, noted that Pakistan's forthcoming presidency of the multilateral body is part of ongoing efforts to position the country as a regional and global digital leader.
Pakistan is scheduled to assume the DCO presidency in 2026, following Kuwait's term in 2025.
"The 2026 presidency will see Pakistan hosting the Digital Future Development Initiative (DFDI) forum in Islamabad, marking a significant step in the country's digital transformation journey."
"On this occasion, I am going to have three major initiatives," the minister stressed. "First, strengthen cross-border data flows and interoperability. We are establishing a cross-border data flow norm under the South-South cooperation framework. Second, inclusive digital technology development is essential, including in the fields of agriculture, medical and healthcare. Third, we need to conduct joint training of digital talents. Through the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) framework, the two countries have signed a talent training agreement. There is high urgency for digital talent training in Pakistan."
Chaudhary listed cloud computing, flood warning, climate change, smart cities and other areas where China and Pakistan can achieve in-depth cooperation and suggested establishing a Digital Friendly City Innovation Centre with branches in Beijing, Islamabad and Karachi so that different branches can carry out a series of joint pilot projects.
"We're seeing that Beijing is accelerating the construction of a global digital economy benchmark city and exploring the construction of a Digital Silk Road pilot zone. Pakistan is willing to work with China and all other partners around the globe to turn vision into tangible digital reality," he added.
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