KARACHI, Aug 15: The chairman of a large Canadian investment bank, Kingsdale, has announced setting up of an incubator park in Karachi to help make the city a centre of information technology.

John Marshall made the announcement at a reception hosted by the Nazim of Karachi, Naimatullah Khan, in a local hotel on Thursday.

Anwer Merchant, the president of the Canada-Pakistan Business Council, was also honoured on the occasion.

The reception was attended by Yousuf Haroon, Naib Nazim Tariq Hassan, District Coordination Officer Shafiq-ur-Rehman Paracha and others.

John Marshall said the 30,000 square feet incubator park in Karachi would come on ground by September, and it would help a large number of IT companies to incubate.

He also expressed his organization’s willingness to extend assistance to the software development as well as the system support for the local IT companies.

Mr Marshall further promised assistance in their product creation and product development.

He said his organization would also extend support for marketing the products on these companies internationally.

Mr Marshall stated that his firm would also extend assistance in the education sector and would open a school here with an enrolment of about 1,000 students by 2003. He also spoke of collaboration in the fields of information technology, agriculture, food processing, manufacturing as well as distribution.

Nazim Naimatullah Khan said the law and order situation in Karachi was far better than that in many cities in other countries.

However, he added, the Western media presented an exaggerated picture of the law and order situation in this city.

Naimatullah said that after the 9/11 event, the investment climate in Karachi was favourable.

It was stated that during the past couple of months some 15 MoUs had been signed during the tour of the Nazim to the United States, Canada, Saudi Arabia and Iran.

These MoUs are said to be to the tune of about $2 billion including the one with a Swiss-German company pertaining to the elevated magnetic train is worth $1.2 billion.

Naimatullah Khan also asked John Marshall to help in the improvement and upgradation of some 4,500 schools the city government had inherited.

Anwer Merchant said a number of investment opportunities were available in Karachi.

DCO Shafiq-ur-Rehman Paracha emphasised the need for investment in the human resources’ development.—APP