IT in Pakistan (China & Japan agreement)

China and Japan will provide assistance to Pakistan for training in information technology and setting up hi-tech projects, Japanese Science and Technology Minister Attaur Rehman said on November 7. The minister said he had signed several memorandum of understandings during his visit to China and Japan this week. Rehman, who travelled with Pakistani software businessmen, said talks in Japan and China focussed on the promotion of software. The Japanese Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) would also provide training for 100 engineers, he said. Pakistan would hire 50 IT teachers from Japan. Hitachi Corporation also agreed on a plan to establish an IT company in Pakistan and Komatsu of Japan would expand its base in Pakistan and train software engineers here, he added. Rehman described his China visit as very useful and said 43 projects were concluded with the Chinese government which should be implemented in the current year for promoting engineering, agriculture, pharmaceutical, chemicals and ocean resources. "The Chinese government would be helping us in setting optic fibre rings around the cities of Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad for high speed Internet access." Rahman said details were being worked out with China for making low priced and high quality computer equipment in Pakistan. Great Wall Corporation plans to manufacture and export 70 percent of its products under the IBM trade mark and Pakistan would be used as a platform for exports to the Middle East. General Pervez Musharraf's military government has launched an ambitious plan to develop the country's IT infrastructure. The plan unveiled in August envisages an expenditure of five billion rupees (about US$100 million) over the next few years including training of 100,000 people a year. Internet access will be available in 4,000 cities, towns and villages by the year 2002, officials said.