Sindh signs MoU with Huawei in Shanghai to build Pakistan’s first AI-native digital province, invites tech labs to Karachi Education City

SHANGHAI: The memorandum that Sindh officials had been talking about all week is now signed. The provincial government and Chinese technology company Huawei inked an MoU in Shanghai on Friday to work towards building Sindh into Pakistan’s first AI-native digital province. Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah also toured Huawei’s Lianqiu Lake research and development centre, where officials briefed him on work in semiconductor chips, 5G and 6G technologies, artificial intelligence and cloud computing. The direction, as the chief minister put it, is moving from buying technology to building it together.

Partnership, not a shopping list

Shah was clear that Sindh does not want a procurement deal alone. He pressed for cooperation that extends to joint ventures and technology transfer, so skills take root locally instead of arriving in crates. On that thinking, he invited Huawei to set up research and development facilities and technology laboratories at Karachi Education City, and he also proposed a sister-city partnership between Karachi and Shanghai.

From an e-portal to data centres

The province is already working on an e-portal and a wider digital transformation programme, and it has sought Huawei’s help with cloud infrastructure, data centres, disaster recovery systems and cybersecurity. Computing infrastructure for artificial intelligence sits on the same list. Pointing to Sindh’s large pool of young IT professionals, the chief minister proposed pilot projects with universities and technology institutions to create openings for that talent and improve digital public services. The signatures are done. What residents will judge, fairly enough, is when any of it shows up in a government office or on a city street.