CPEC to boost digital economy in Pakistan backward areas
China’s digital economy grew at an average of 15.9 percent from 2012 to 2022, according to data released at the Global Digital Economy Conference recently held in Beijing, China. Ammar Jaffri, CEO of Security Experts (Pvt) Limited and former director general of Center of Information Technology (CIT) of Pakistan, believes that Pak-China cooperation can help accelerate the digital economy development of Pakistan.
“The digital economy of Pakistan is going forward at a very good pace,” stressed Ammar. “There are two really important things for its development. First, the economy of Pakistan is documented now. NADRA(National Database and Registration Authority), our national database institution, has assigned a specific ID number to each citizen, according to which their economic behaviors can be checked. Other institutions, like the banking system, are also documented. Secondly, the youth in Pakistan are very dynamic. Their earnings through Amazon ranked 5th or 6th place in the world. Also, people learned to work from home during the COVID-19, and many are earning good.”
Ammar told us that the biggest issue for some backward areas in Pakistan to develop the digital economy is that there is no internet facility available there. “For that, my institute SDGs academy is trying the best to get these services available in those places.”
“These underdeveloped areas have also got benefits through the China Pakistan Economic Corridor(CPEC), which starts from Khunjrab to Gwadar. I have traveled to some places myself,” added Ammar. The scale of China’s digital economy has been expanding rapidly during the last few years, and he believes that cooperation with China in this field can play an important role in developing the digital economy in the whole country. “We Pakistanis all think that CPEC is introducing new technologies. Many of our students are also enrolled in Chinese universities. I think that when they come back and start their careers, many new opportunities will arise.”
