China, Japan to cooperate with Pakistan in IT sector: Atta
ISLAMABAD- The Minister for Science and Technology, Dr Attaur Rehman said that Pakistan has a wide scope of cooperation with China and Japan in the sector of Information Technology.
Talking to the newsmen in his office, after attending Asia Pacific Telecommunication Summit in Tokyo and visiting China the Minister said he received a tremendous response from both the countries and explored a number of joint ventures, to be done in future.
He said a total number of 43 projects in different fields of agricultural sector, pharmaceutical, information technology, science and technology and engineering were identified with Chinese government. All of them will be started in early next year, he added.
The Chinese Government, he said, also agreed to explore educational opportunities in six fields including information technology, agriculture, pharmaceutical, material sciences and industry of microelectronics.
“I visited Shenzen, a free Industrial City and Silicon Valley of China, and discussed the possibilities of joint ventures with the representatives of public and private organisations. Japan External Trade Organization, a giant IT company, has offered Pakistan to hold a free IT exhibition in Tokyo to represent its products and services in the same sector. Through the exhibition there are immense chances of worldwide projection of Pakistani products and services in the field of information technology,” he added.
The Japanese Government further extended its help to Pakistan and allocated a big space in a most expensive commercial area of Tokyo for two years time period, he said adding the space will be utilised to establish marketing and business offices for Pakistani product.
He said an exhibition is being: organised in Tokyo under the title of “Techno Forum 2000” and Pakistan will also, display there its products relating science and Technology. He said a public organisation, will gave the proposal of institution IT universities in Pakistan. The organization will also train 100 IT expert from Pakistan in two years.
In Japan the Minister held meetings with the president of Hitachi, the Management of Tokyo Institute of Information and Engineering, Vice Minister for Ministry of International Trade and Industry, Japan, President Nippon Telegraph and Telephone DATA Corporation and President of Komastu.
Dr Attaur Rehman told the newsmen that a Chinese telecommunication company presented a digital exchange having capacity! of 10,000 telephone connections to Pakistan as a goodwill gesture. The venue to install the exchange for high-speed Internet connections will be decide later, he added. He showed his dissatisfaction over the pace of progress in the field of science and technology during past years. “We were just signing MOUs and kept the projects under heavy files. I am sorry but no remarkable practical work has been done so far,” the Minister added. He said that Pakistan would pick up 50 teachers working in various public universities, in Japan, from the directory of IT Confessional to be sent by Tokyo Institute of Information and Engineering Technology.
Giving a note of information about other forthcoming projects with the cooperation of China and Japan, he said, “Hitachi Corporation is working on a plan to establish an IT company in Pakistan in near future. Another company Komatsu will expand its operational base in Pakistan and train software engineers.”
Revealing another expected project, the Minister said Great Wall Corporation China, which is manufacturing and exporting 70 per cent of its product under the IBM trade mark will use Pakistan as a platform for the export of computers to Middle East and other countries. A Chinese Telecom Company ZTE has offered its help to establish an IT University in Pakistan, he said, adding an MOU has been signed between ZTE and Pakistan to develop a software centre, which will be fully funded by the company.
Source: The Nation
Date:11/8/2000
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