Beijing United Information Technology (IBI), a Chinese industrial e-commerce firm, has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Sindh government to pursue public private partnerships in safe city projects, green data centres and digital services. The MoU was signed on October 15 on the sidelines of the Sindh Investment Conference in Shanghai. IBI Director and Senior Vice President Liu Junzhai and Sindh Investment Secretary Raja Khurram Shahzad Umar signed the agreement, in the presence of the Ambassador of Pakistan to China, Syed Ali Asad Gilani. The signing brought together a technology company from China and the provincial government at an event that was held to attract investment to Sindh.
The agreement covers the digitalization of enterprises, factories, industrial parks and ports across the province. Safe city projects, green data centres and digital services are the three areas that were named for public private partnerships, so the memorandum extends from city surveillance and infrastructure for data to the digital systems that industrial and trade facilities use. By including ports and industrial parks, the agreement reaches the places where manufacturing and trade take place, and not only government offices, and it makes the digital upgrade of businesses a part of the cooperation.
The agreement takes the industrial cooperation of IBI in Pakistan to the provincial level, and it links it to the second phase of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), which centers on industrial and agricultural cooperation. The company also plans to bring its suppliers and business partners into Sindh. Syed Qasim Naveed Qamar, Special Assistant to the Chief Minister on Investment and Public Private Partnership, noted that the province would set up a mechanism to identify potential projects and requirements, according to a statement from the company. This mechanism is the next step after the signing, since it will decide which projects the two sides take forward.
The provincial government used the conference to seek investment in energy, manufacturing, agriculture and emerging technologies. It reported that 34 MoUs and agreements were signed at the event, and the agreement with IBI is one of them. The memorandum does not set out investment amounts or timelines for the projects, so the details of the safe city and data centre work will depend on the mechanism that Sindh is to create. For the province, the agreement adds a Chinese partner in digital infrastructure and services to the list of companies that took part in the conference.
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