16 April 2005	Saturday	06 Rabi-ul-Awwal 1426

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ISLAMABAD, April 15: An internet city similar to that of Dubai will soon be established in the capital.

The central departmental working party (CDWP) of the Planning Commission on Friday sanctioned Rs77 million for acquiring land for the project.

The 15-acre land will be bought in the suburbs of the capital. The project will be developed by the Pakistan Software Export Board (PSEB).

Through an innovative public-private partnership, funds would be generated to the tune of $10 million to develop the area into a world-class IT park.

“This has been a longstanding requirement in the IT industry, that there should be a proper internet city on the lines of the Dubai internet city and other similar technology parks across the world,” Information Technology Minister Awais Ahmad Khan Leghari said after the CDWP meeting.

Meanwhile, PSEB Managing-Director Dr Aamir Matin informed the reporters that IT companies in Islamabad were already occupying nearly 500,000 square feet of space in buildings managed by PSEB.

However, still some companies are located outside the building and if their requirements are also added, the total current demand will be about 750,000 sq ft. “This means that if we are to start with a million sq ft of space in the internet city, this would not be an unreasonable figure,” he observed.

Now, when the project has been officially sanctioned, the PSEB would be able to have the land transferred to its name, thus enabling it to rapidly execute against its plans to set up the first world class IT city in Pakistan.