Chinese company pledges investing US$700m in Punjab's IT, smart city projects

ISLAMABAD: Chinese company Chengdu announced to invest 700 million US Dollars in Information and Technology and smart city projects in Punjab, ARY News reported.

The announcement was made during a meeting of a high-level Chinese delegation with Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif in Islamabad on Friday. The delegation included the Chengdu General Coordinator for the ICT Hub Ms Scarlett and Deputy CEO of Huawei Mr Yu Ray.

The chief minister assented for the investment, paving the way for several initiatives in the province.

An e-taxi service willbe introduced while cloud and data centres will also be established at the Nawaz Sharif IT City in Lahore. The Punjab government will provide land and buildings for the project.

The first e-commerce platform in Pakistan will be established, providing training to Pakistani youth on online worldwide trading.

Furthermore, the smart city initiatives in Lahore will include a smart control room, smart traffic management, smart transport, and a smart sanitation center.

The meeting also discussed establishing an AI industry center in Phase Two of the project to train youth in artificial intelligence technologies. The Chinese government is committed to capacity-building for platform services in Punjab. Speaking on the occasion, Maryam Nawaz Sharif expressed the resolve to make Punjab as the ‘IT hub of the region’.

Earlier, the Punjab government announced the last date for registering for the free solar panel programme.

According to reports, the last date to avail free solar panel scheme is January 5, 2025. To register for the free solar system, residents need to send their National ID card number (CNIC) to 8800 via SMS or register online through the PITB-designed portal cmsolarscheme.punjab.gov.pk