Islamabad: International consortium to set up IT park in Chak Shahzad

[Naveed Yaseen]

The Pakistan Software Export Board (PSEB) has issued a letter of intent (LOI) to an international consortium comprising TelcoNet, Axor Group Inc Canada and Technopolis Plc Finland for establishing the first state-of-the-art national IT park at Chak Shahzad, Islamabad.

The IT park will be developed on build, operate and transfer (BOT) basis over 14.9 acres of land, stated a press release issued by the PSEB.

After successful negotiations with the consortium, construction work will commence in January 2009 and the project is expected to be completed by January 2011. With an expected development cost of more than Rs9 billion, the park will provide 1.5 million square feet of state-of-the-art office space to local and international information technology companies.

“PSEB/Ministry of Information Technology (MoIT) has set a challenging mission of developing a network of IT parks across the country and this park is the first milestone in this mission. This is a landmark project for Pakistan’s IT industry which will house more than 10,000 employees. “In addition to providing affordable and quality IT-enabled workspace for companies, this park will generate employment opportunities, bring in foreign investment, enhance IT exports and stimulate economic growth,” PSEB Managing Director Talib Baloch said in a statement.

To sustain the current growth rate of the IT industry, he added, three more IT parks would be developed by the PSEB in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad on BOT model, for which land at prime locations had already been acquired.

“The PSEB intends to further extend this network to Peshawar, Quetta and other cities at some appropriate time in future.”

IT and knowledge parks have been instrumental in promoting 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.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=124284