The China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is a transnational project which promises faster growth and infrastructural development of the whole region. It will effectively serve the long-term economic interests of both the countries, said President of All Pakistan Business Forum (APBF) Ibrahim Qureshi. He said: "We appreciate China's robust investment plans and transnational initiative for boosting cross border trade activities. With large foreign investment coming to the country, it is essential that all provinces get equitable benefits, opportunities and budgets for strengthening their infrastructure and trade activities."
He urged the government to ensure that all provinces benefit equitably from this revolutionary project. Pakistan's domestic Information Technology (IT) market is expected to witness growth due to China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) Projects. In terms of the current scheme, he said the CPEC will include construction of cross border OFC (optical fiber) system between China and Pakistan for international connectivity of voice/data traffic and provision of seamless GSM coverage along KKH for the proposed Gawadar - Kashighar Economic Corridor in Gilgit Baltistan.
He said Pakistan itself represents a major potential for people centric mobile based applications and products which are fully prepared for the next level of development with state-of-the-art connectivity structure with fixed mobile networks that have a tele-density of more than 71% which is also increasing on a monthly basis.
According to him, the government is making all possible efforts to improve exports of Pakistan's IT sector and has extended major incentives to the IT industry which include a variety of tax exemptions, permission to operate foreign exchange accounts and profit repatriation. The government is also paying attention to the capacity building of the IT sector which includes, among others, international certification programs and internship placements.