PCJCCI calls for broader push to build Digital Pakistan

LAHORE: The Pakistan China Joint Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCJCCI) on Wednesday suggested that Pakistan should take solid steps to bolster reforms related to the market-oriented allocation of data elements and speed up the construction of digital infrastructure for ‘Digital Pakistan’ like Digital China.

President PCJCCI Moazzam Ghurki said this during a think tank meeting of the joint chamber. He added that China rolled out a plan for the overall layout of the country’s digital development last year, vowing to make important progress in the construction of Digital China by 2025. Pakistan can take help from this model.

“It has all the information for advancing the development of data-related fundamental institutions, coordinating the integration, sharing, development and application of data resources and pushing forward the planning and building of Digital China, which includes a digital economy and society.”

The PCJCCI also urged efforts to accelerate the establishment of a national computing network and data circulation infrastructure and said that digital technologies are finding a wide range of applications across various industries in Pakistan.

Senior Vice President of the PCJCCI Fang Yulong said that more efforts should be made to establish and improve a data property rights system; formulate policies to promote the efficient circulation and trading of data in a compliant manner; and establish a revenue distribution system and a security governance system for data.

He added that just like China, Pakistan should also accelerate the research of data security technologies; bolster the digital, intelligent and green transformation of industries; strengthen international cooperation in the digital economy domain; and continuously optimize the regulations concerning the cross-border data flow.

Vice President of the PCJCCI Hamza Khalid said that “China has unveiled guidelines to expand the application scenarios of data elements in more fields, foster new growth drivers and give birth to new industries and new business models, adding efforts will be further stepped up to press ahead with the utilization and development of data elements.”

“With the theme of unleashing the value of data elements and developing new quality productive forces, the summit will focus on giving full play to the multiplier effect of data, and building digital infrastructure and data resource systems,” he added.