A “Go Ahead” is given for the finalization of the land identified with the stakeholders and for completion of other formalities for establishment of Science and Technology Park in Pakistan to The Xinjiang No.13 Division of Construction Corp, Hami, China.
Sources revealed that Xinjiang No 13 Division asked for providing the digital map of land Islamabad city for working on the plan and the starting of the feasibility study. The details of the component companies in this venture from Chinese will be provided very soon.
The establishment of Pak-China international science and technology & commercial and logistic park in Pakistan looking at an investment to around $1.5 billion under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) was agreed to by China.
The area of construction will be in the stretch of 500 hectares and completion of the project will be a period of 10 years in 3 distinct phases of 3, 4, and 3 years respectively.
The structure of investment is equity participation by providing land by Pakistan, while the finance is from China. This is a co-ownership venture between Pakistani side and Chinese side and Chinese partners will pull in merchants and project investment. An employment generation of up to 150,000 personnel is looked at during this period.
The project has two parts:
- Establishment of Science and Technology City
- Establishment of Commercial and Logistics Park
COMSATS Institute of Information Technology (CIIT) will be undertaking Science and Technology City along with Chinese companies. A commercial and logistic park proposed to be co-owned by National Logistics Cell (NLC) from Pakistan side is also agreed upon by the Chinese.
The key functions of the Science & Technology Park are:
- To provide an exhibition and developmental platform for academia and industry (local and international)
- To develop knowledge-based enterprises by undertaking research based routes to the development and commercialization of ideas and technologies
- To act as a knowledge provider by establishing university research and education infrastructure, applied research laboratory facilities by public bodies at the Technology Park
- To be a dynamic business and trading platform for local and international industries
- To showcase Pak-China commodities in order to provide impetus to the existing collaborative ventures while simultaneously encouraging new linkages
- To act as a wholesale and retail market
- To provide Financial support services such as through establishing venture capital entities, regional development agencies and/or banks at the Technology Park
- To provide modern e-commerce platform keeping up with latest global trends
- To act as an investment and financing platform for novel startups and technologies
- To set-up Business Incubators and Business Development Centers, both for male and female entrepreneurs alike.
The Technology Park will be a real-estate development entity owned by the Pakistan government / COMSATS Institute of Information Technology and taken care of by qualified professionals.
It looks for supporting innovation, entrepreneurship, promotion of S&T ventures, providing interface to academia and industry and kindling the competition of the geographic environments by locating knowledge producing, adapting and using enterprises.
The positive factors behind the Pak-China IT Park are increased economic activity via investments and jobs creation, enhancing capability, making the knowledge ventures more visible, and knowledge workers knowledge workers mobility.
