ISLAMABAD: The Special Technology Zones Authority (STZA) of Pakistan and the Zhongguancun Belt And Road Industrial Promotion Association of China (ZBRA) have signed a Letter of Intent (LoI) at a virtual ceremony to promote high-quality science and technological exchanges between China and Pakistan.

The LoI was signed by Zhang Xiaodong, President ZBRA, and Amer Hashmi, Chairman of STZA in the presence of Moinul Haque, Pakistan’s Ambassador to the People’s Republic of China, and Khalid Mansoor, PM Special Assistant on CPEC Affairs.

Under the framework of China-Pakistan cooperation, ZBRA will jointly work with STZA on deepening all-around cooperation among academic institutions, R&D centers, industries, and technological enterprises of the two countries.

The STZA aims to initiate collaboration with ZBRA to promote the scientific and technological exchanges between China and Pakistan including information sharing on science and technology development experience, development of a complete ecosystem, new and emerging technologies, and construction and management of technology zones.

Both parties aim to facilitate exchanges between high-tech enterprises of both countries in the areas of Semiconductors, Cloud Computing, Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, FinTech, Blockchain, and Biotech for mutually beneficial cooperation.

Zhongguancun Science Park, also known as Z-Park, was established in 1988 as one of the first science parks and first national innovation demonstration centres in China. It is also known today as the “Silicon Valley of China”.

Covering an area of 488 square kilometres, Z-Park includes 16 member-parks, and is home to nearly 22,000 high-tech companies. Global companies like Lenovo, Baidu, BOE, Didi-global, Xiaomi and Beigene started up from Z-Park, as did over 80 Unicorn companies such as Toutiao, Mggvii and Cambricon. Over 200 branches and R&D centres of the world’s Top 500 companies have offices at Zhongguancun Science Park.

The ZBRA and STZA envision creating a complete ecosystem to transform Pakistan’s tech sector by knowledge sharing on science and technology development experience, emerging technologies, and jointly organizing activities to promote practical exchanges on science and technology commercialization, and high-end talent cultivation.

This collaboration is another cornerstone of STZA’s goal of transforming Pakistan’s human capital into a high-end future workforce within the tech industry of Pakistan and creating many opportunities for the youth of Pakistan. STZA envisions that this partnership between ZBRA and STZA will maximize the potential capabilities of the tech industry of both countries.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022