Rs 9b IT park to be set up in Islamabad

This will create more jobs, bring in investment, enhance IT exports and stimulate economic growth
Muhammad Kabir
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Software Export Board (PSEB) has issued Letter of Intent (LoI) to International Consortium (TelcoNet, Axor Group Inc Canada and Technopolis Plc, Finland) for the establishment of first state-of-the-art National IT Park, at Chak Shahazad, Islamabad. The IT Park will be developed on Built Operate and Transfer (BOT) model on 14.90 acres of land. After the successful negotiations with the international consortium within next three months, the construction will commence in January 2009 and the project is expected to be completed by January 2011. With an expected development cost of more than 9 billion rupees, the park will provide 1.5 million sq ft of contemporary state-of-the-art office space to local and international IT companies.

"PSEB, Ministry of Information Technology has set a challenging mission of developing network of IT parks across the country and this park is the first milestone towards this mission. This is a landmark project for the Pakistan IT Industry which will house more than 10,000 employees. In addition to providing affordable and quality IT enabled work space for companies, this park will generate more employment opportunities, bring in foreign investment, enhance IT exports and stimulate economic growth. To sustain the current growth rate of the IT industry, three more IT Parks will be developed by PSEB in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad on BOT Model basis, for which land at prime locations has already been acquired. PSEB intends to further extend this network in Peshawar, Quetta and other cities at some appropriate time in future", Talib Baloch, MD PSEB said in a statement issued here.

IT parks have been instrumental to the promotion of knowledge based economies in developed and emerging economies and facilitate clustering of knowledge based firms and stakeholders providing capital, research innovation, and other services. Other benefits of these parks include promotion of business synergies and facilitation of access to capital, infrastructure, human capital and policy incentives. In developing countries like Pakistan with much needed physical and energy infrastructure, PSEB's IT parks will provide world class infrastructure - smart buildings, reliable bandwidth and electricity, and security - that is required for the success of knowledge based firms in IT, nanotechnology, bio-informatics and other related areas, MD PSEB added.

Also, to fulfill immediate office space requirement, PSEB is negotiating with several building owners both in public and private sector to convert existing suitable facilities into IT parks. PSEB is currently managing more than 700,000 square feet of office space in 10 IT parks across the country.

PSEB is a government agency mandated to promote Pakistan's IT Industry, including software, IT enabled services, hardware and call centers locally and globally. PSEB has been facilitating the IT Industry through its programs in Human Capital, Office Space, Marketing, Company Capability Development, Telecom Bandwidth, Industry Finance, Public Policy, Strategy & Research, and Facilitation.

Source: The Post, 16/7/2008