Pakistan should borrow a page from Beijing's playbook if it wants a modern, technology-driven economy, according to the Pakistan-China Joint Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCJCCI). Adeel Munawar, the chamber's commercial ambassador, has called for urgent action to digitise the economy by adopting Chinese models of digital infrastructure, innovation and data-led industrial development, starting with a nationwide network of computing hubs and data centres.
Speaking at a think-tank session hosted by the chamber, Mr Munawar argued that Pakistan must shift from a conventional industrial economy to one built on technology. Such a transition, he said, would support sustainable growth, lift exports and sharpen the country's competitiveness in global markets.
At the heart of his proposal lies physical infrastructure. Integrated computing network hubs and modern data centres across the country, he contended, would provide the foundation for advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence, big-data analytics, cloud computing, blockchain and smart manufacturing.
These tools, in Mr Munawar's view, are fast becoming indispensable drivers of productivity, industrial modernisation and investment worldwide. Countries that lack the underlying digital backbone, his argument implies, risk falling behind in attracting capital and upgrading their industries.
China offers the template he has in mind. Mr Munawar pointed to its success in building national computing hubs across strategic regions, including the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei area, the Yangtze River Delta, the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, Chengdu-Chongqing, Guizhou province and Inner Mongolia.
Pakistan, he suggested, could replicate that framework by establishing integrated digital infrastructure in its main commercial and industrial centres. His list included Lahore, Karachi, Faisalabad, Sialkot, Peshawar, Quetta, Hyderabad and Islamabad, as well as Gilgit-Baltistan.
A national computing network, Mr Munawar said, would enable smoother data sharing, boost industrial efficiency, strengthen digital governance and spur innovation across a range of sectors. In effect, it would knit the country's dispersed economic centres into a single digital system.
The potential applications he cited are broad. Modern data centres, he argued, would underpin industrial automation, financial services, disaster management, telemedicine, e-commerce, logistics, education and digital communication.
Employment featured in his case as well. Mr Munawar said such infrastructure would open up new job opportunities for Pakistan's growing population of young people, a demographic group whose prospects increasingly hinge on the country's ability to modernise.
The chamber's proposal is ambitious, and it outlines a vision rather than a costed plan. How such a network would be financed, built and governed was not set out at the session. Yet the message from the PCJCCI was clear: in the race to digitise, Pakistan cannot afford to move slowly.