Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Federal Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunication Shaza Fatima Khawaja are set to visit China from May 23 to 26, 2026, with the visit aimed at deepening the Pak-China digital partnership across technology, digital infrastructure, innovation, and investment. The announcement was made by the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication, signalling one of the most senior-level bilateral technology engagements between Pakistan and China in recent memory. The inclusion of both the Prime Minister and the Federal Information Technology Minister in the same delegation underlines the strategic weight the Pakistani government is placing on technology and digital economy cooperation as a central pillar of its relationship with China.
The visit arrives at a significant moment for Pakistan’s digital sector. The country’s information and communication technology exports have reached a record $3.81 billion in the first ten months of fiscal year 2025-26, with the government targeting $10 billion in information technology exports by fiscal year 2029 under the Uraan Pakistan vision. Deepening ties with China, which is one of the world’s leading players in digital infrastructure, artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and telecommunications technology, is a logical step in building the investment base and technology transfer frameworks that could help Pakistan accelerate toward those targets. China-based companies including Huawei, Alibaba, and ZTE already have a considerable presence in Pakistan’s technology and telecommunications landscape, and a high-level visit of this nature is expected to lay the groundwork for further expanding those relationships.
The digital partnership agenda for the visit is expected to span a range of areas including technology investment, digital infrastructure development, innovation collaboration, and potentially new agreements on artificial intelligence, cloud services, and information technology capacity building. Pakistan and China signed over 100 memoranda of understanding worth approximately $5 billion during the visit, reflecting the breadth and scale of the bilateral agenda being pursued across multiple sectors. For the information technology dimension specifically, the presence of Shaza Fatima Khawaja in the delegation positions the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication to engage directly with Chinese counterpart institutions and private sector technology leaders, opening channels for the kind of concrete, sector-specific agreements that translate high-level diplomatic goodwill into tangible outcomes for Pakistan’s digital economy.
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