Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Wednesday that the key to national development lies in artificial intelligence (AI) and digitisation, and he stressed the need to speed up their adoption across agriculture, trade, healthcare, and governance. He chaired a review meeting in Islamabad on the progress of AI and digitisation in the economy and in governance, and on cooperation with the Alibaba Group, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) said. The prime minister noted that a memorandum of understanding was signed with Alibaba at its headquarters in Hangzhou during his visit to China, and said that using the partnership to give small and medium enterprises (SMEs) access to global markets is among the government’s top priorities. He also welcomed Alibaba’s cooperation on agricultural automation and on exporting Pakistani farm commodities to Chinese markets.
The meeting was told that work is under way on AI-based models for agriculture, tobacco track-and-trace technology, and a digital platform for the export of citrus fruits and olives. A special Pakistan Pavilion has been set up on a dedicated website on Alibaba for the export of Pakistani products, and the system for digital verification of trade documents through the Pakistan Single Window has been activated. A two-year programme is also being launched with the SMEs Development Authority and Alibaba to give small and medium businesses access to global markets, training, and e-commerce opportunities. The meeting reviewed progress on a modern data platform and a central data hub for the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and Pakistan Revenue Automation Limited (PRAL), along with a proposed pilot project for cancer diagnosis using AI.
In the energy sector, the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) is being given AI and business intelligence tools to analyse fuel supply chain data, the PMO said. It added that initiatives using digital technology and AI in higher education, railways, postal services, and urban administration are in their final stages. The prime minister said the cooperation with Alibaba must produce tangible results, with all projects carried out against clear targets, timelines, and effective monitoring. He directed the relevant ministries to complete the necessary measures by November and submit a progress report, which gives the departments involved a deadline of roughly a month.
The prime minister also gave specific instructions. He asked that a cancer early detection system be put in place with Alibaba’s cooperation at the earliest, and that a 15-day AI training programme for information technology graduates, run under the Ignite programme of the Ministry of Information Technology with Alibaba, start soon. He said OGRA should quickly introduce an analytics system for monitoring the petroleum supply chain, and that the Export Promotion Board should work with Alibaba to increase national exports. Ministers who attended included Ahsan Iqbal, Rana Tanveer Hussain, Jam Kamal Khan, Musadik Malik, Ahad Khan Cheema, Muhammad Aurangzeb, Attaullah Tarar, Shaza Fatima Khawaja, Syed Mustafa Kamal, and Abdul Aleem Khan, along with Minister of State Bilal Azhar Kayani. The announcement did not give the value of the Alibaba projects or say how many of them have already gone live, so progress will be judged against the November report.
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