ISLAMABAD: The government has received a loan of $76.28 million from the Republic of Korea for establishment of the Information Technology Park project in Islamabad.
The Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication has confirmed that the government of Pakistan has received a loan of $76.28 million from the Export-Import Bank of Korea from the resources of the Economic Development Cooperation Fund (EDCF) of the Republic of Korea toward the cost of the establishment of the IT Park Project, Islamabad, and intends to apply a portion of the proceeds of this loan to payments under the contract for the establishment of the IT Park Project.
The ministry has stated that the terms and conditions of the contract and payments by the bank, will be subject in all respects to the terms and conditions of the loan agreement, including the guidelines for the procurement under the EDCF loan (the guidelines).
Except the bank may specially otherwise agree, no party other than the borrower will derive any rights from the loan agreement or have any claim to the loan proceeds.
The Ministry of Information Technology and Telecom, which is the Project Executing Agency (PEA) has invited bids from eligible bidders for the construction of (IT Park Islamabad) Technology Park, Islamabad with supplying, installation and commissioning of the ICT infrastructure and security equipment.
The works and procurement to be performed in this project are as below: construction of IT Park building - 10 stories above ground and two basements building with a gross floor area of 66,893.643 m2; offices, share rooms (conference rooms, data centers, and etc), amenities, backup power, and parking area? Implementation of ICT infrastructure and security system and commissioning - ICT infrastructure: building network, data center tier-iii, mis, Wi-Fi, pa system, video conference system, etc - security system: fence security, human and vehicle control system, CCTV, etc.
The estimated works and procurement period is 30 months. Bidding will be conducted through competitive bidding procedure specified in the guideline for procurement under the EDCF loans. The Islamabad IT project is expected to provide over 5,000 direct and indirect employment opportunities during construction phase and about 15,000 employment opportunities to IT experts, students, and persons concerning industry after its completion.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021