Pakistan and China will expand cooperation in different sectors after PM Imran Khan’s recent China visit: President Alvi

Karachi: President Dr Arif Alvi has said that Pakistan and China will expand cooperation in different sectors as a result of the recent visit of Prime Minister Imran Khan to China and his meetings with the Chinese leadership including President Xi Jinping.

He expressed such views while addressing the ceremony ‘Celebrating Pakistan’s First Open Source RISC–V Microprocessor designed at the UIT (University of Information Technology)’ held here at UIT campus.

Commenting on the recent visit of Prime Minister Imran Khan to China, the President remarked that the Prime Minister did not ask for any other support but asked for extending collaboration in the different sectors like textile, Information Technology (IT) and other sector on basis of win-win position. The President was optimistic that the two friendly countries will enhance the existing cooperation to new levels.

He mentioned that Pakistan had huge cheaper human resources as compared to other countries as it is country of 220 million population.

“People should not leave the Pakistan because the country is in need of each person to make it prosper but the government should also create some opportunities for them,” he stated.

Congratulating UIT and its team for designing Pakistan’s First Open Source RISC – V Microprocessor, President Alvi emphasised that Pakistan needed more graduates in IT sector in number and quality as well because world needs more number of these graduates in this sector.

“So, we should produce more graduates and government and private institutions should focus on this sector as more graduates can be produced in the country, he said, adding that Pakistan is considering setting up a quantum lab,” he added.

Appreciating government universities, he observed that the Virtual University and Quaid-e-Azam University were doing excellent job by producing graduates in the sector and in addition, they were conducting online classes for short courses to meet rising demand in the sector.

In addition, he noted, the government had reduced the taxes on this sector to encourage the institutions and “we would continue all kinds of such support for IT sector.”

He acknowledged that the UIT University had done a great job by developing Pakistan’s first open source risk-based microprocessor and they had succeeded in filling the huge gap in IT industry.

On the occasion, Chairman Silicon Federation, Naveed Sherwani said that the forty chips and design labs would be set up all over Pakistan and UIT is the only university in Pakistan which started manufacturing a chip in a small room two years ago. UIT Vice Chancellor Dr Shoib Zaidi also spoke on the occasion.