“With the development of the ICT industry and accelerating technical training for ICT personnel, Pakistan can combine its advantages in software services, explore export channels in system integration services, and use ICT technology to serve the digital transformation and upgrading of traditional fields.” Mr. Wang Lufeng, Dean, Artificial Intelligence and Big Data Dept. of Chongqing Industry Polytechnic College (CQIPC) told Gwadar Pro in a recent interview.
CQIPC has been training ICT talents for Pakistan since 2018, and the third Pakistan ICT middle and senior management training course in 2021 in cooperation with HUAWEI is in full swing. Mr. Wang shared his views on strengthening vocational college cooperation and ICT cooperation between China and Pakistan.
Connecting the digital transformation of enterprises and the training of digital talents
“Our college, in conjunction with Huawei Technology Co., Ltd., has innovated the three-dimensional training model of ‘skills-management-corporate culture’, training new ICT talents who can adapt to technological renewal and corporate culture, and serve export-oriented local enterprises to go abroad, so as to alleviate the shortage of ICT management talents in Pakistan.” the dean explained.
Taking the Mayor Scholarship Program for Foreign Students of Chongqing Municipal People’s Government as an opportunity, CQIPC focuses on the development trend of the global ICT industry and establishes a long-term cooperative relationship with vocational colleges in Pakistan. At present, more than 50 management and technical personnel have been trained, 3 bilingual teaching materials have been compiled, 1 bilingual online open course has been built, and 3 cloud sharing experimental platforms have been developed through cooperation between schools and enterprises.
The global ICT industry is advancing steadily, providing rich digital technology, products, and services for various industries of the economy, and has become a lasting source of power for the rapid development of the digital economy. However, many Belt and Road countries including Pakistan have a large “digital divide”. Mr. Wang believes that strengthening the ICT capacity of Pakistani managers is the key to the success of the digital transformation of local enterprises and the necessary conditions for bridging the “digital divide”.
Ubiquitous ICT brings tangible benefits to Pakistani people in all fields
As an important cornerstone of the “digital Pakistan” strategy, Pakistan’s ICT industry is developing rapidly, and ICT export has become one of the important sources of foreign exchange. Pakistan mainly provides export software services to IT companies. “In addition to artificial intelligence, 5G services, blockchain, and other fields, ICT technology began to infiltrate in traditional fields such as industry, transportation, energy, medical care, education and so on.” Mr. Wang highlighted, “with the development of ICT industry in Pakistan and the accelerated training of ICT technical personnel, Pakistan can combine its advantages in software services, explore export channels in the field of system integration services.”
Based on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor project, China has provided Pakistan with a great number of infrastructure support for the national economy and people’s livelihood, including the deployment and construction of power stations, large international airports, high-grade railways, communication optical cables, oil and gas pipelines, highways, etc. In this regard, Mr. Wang said that in the later stage of the construction and after being put into use, the management, operation and maintenance of these basic projects will rely to a large extent on AI and big data technology.
“Furthermore, Pakistan is based on agriculture, but the present production level of its agriculture is still not high. AI and big data technology can also be applied to sowing, fertilization, insecticidal, harvesting, storage, breeding and other links to improve its agricultural production level.” Mr. Wang added.
Since the outbreak of COVID-19, a new generation of information technology, such as big data, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence, has been rapidly integrated into all aspects of China’s anti-epidemic work, making China’s organization and implementation of epidemic prevention and control more efficient. Mr. Wang suggested Pakistan learn from China’s experience, establish a relevant population resources database, and analyze and predict the size and movement of population through big data technology.
