Shehbaz Sharif sets November deadline for Alibaba AI projects, tells ministries to finish the groundwork
Faisal Mosque, Islamabad. (Photo: Ali Mujtaba / Wikimedia Commons)
ISLAMABAD — Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has put a November deadline on Pakistan’s artificial intelligence and digitalisation projects with Chinese technology giant Alibaba, telling the ministries involved to finish all the necessary groundwork by next month. He issued the directions on Wednesday while chairing a review meeting on the cooperation in Islamabad.
The prime minister’s message was blunt: the secret to national development, he said, lies in AI and digitalisation. Used properly, he argued, these technologies can lift trade, exports, agricultural output and the quality of government services. That is why the projects now need to move from paper to practice — each with clear targets, timelines and monitoring, so the results are tangible rather than promised.
What the projects cover
The bundle reaches well beyond a single sector. On agriculture, it includes automation and Alibaba’s support for exporting Pakistani farm produce to China, while giving small businesses access to global markets is among the government’s top priorities. The prime minister also directed an AI training programme for IT graduates under the Ministry of Information Technology’s Ignite programme.
Health and energy are in the frame too
In health, the push includes an early cancer detection system developed with Alibaba, with an AI-assisted diagnosis pilot under consideration. On energy, the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) has been told to bring in an analytics system using AI and business intelligence to monitor petroleum supply chains. The Export Promotion Board, meanwhile, is to work with Alibaba on lifting Pakistan’s exports.
The backstory
The cooperation was sealed during the prime minister’s visit to China, when a memorandum of understanding was signed at Alibaba’s headquarters in Hangzhou. Since then, Pakistani and Alibaba teams have been working through projects spanning cloud computing, health technology, small-business exports and digital payments. Wednesday’s meeting was a progress check — and a warning that the pace must now quicken.
