Overview
- The Islamabad launch on Wednesday of the IBI Pakistan Digital Economy Headquarters doubled as the venue where DPM Ishaq Dar confirmed PM Shehbaz Sharif’s May 23–26 China visit with a business forum.
- The new headquarters is an IBI-led platform under the CPEC framework that will focus on trade facilitation, supply-chain digitisation, SME onboarding and policy coordination to connect Pakistani industry with Chinese buyers.
- Dar said Pakistan is shifting from physical projects to “intelligent infrastructure” under CPEC 2.0, with priorities that include digital connectivity, artificial intelligence and innovation ecosystems.
- In Karachi on Tuesday, Sindh leaders met a 32-member IBI and Chinese business delegation, invited investment in logistics, manufacturing and renewables, and formed a working group with IBI to pursue sites, visits and feasibility work.
- Speakers described IBI as a Fortune 500 industrial e-commerce firm and said the platform could enable more than $10 billion in potential trade, claims they tied to planned reforms through the SIFC and to follow-up deals the government aims to advance during the China trip.