A new step to make KPK Pakistan’s Silicon Valley, Peshawar will get Pakistan’s first Innovation Park

KPK’s advisor to Chief Minister on Science & Technology, Zia Ullah Bangash, announced Thursday that Pakistan’s first innovation park is being established in Peshawar as part of the KP 4.0 digital policy. The park will hold offices of various companies operating in the IT sector and allow multiple tech businesses to locate and share knowledge and skills.

According to the minister, the “KP 4.0 Connecting The Dots” is a 10-years vision for science, technology, and innovation, meant to align Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with challenges and opportunities of the 4th industrial revolution and provide the best possible opportunities in the science and technology sector to the youth.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has been getting a lot of “firsts” lately. It was the first province to establish an advisory committee on cryptocurrency, the first to legalize it, the first to mine Bitcoin, the first to provide a universal health insurance program for all its residents in the form of Sehat Insaf Card, the first to become a digital city, the first to build a motorsports arena in Pakistan and now KPK will be the first province to establish an innovation park in Pakistan.

If the latest initiative to establish an innovation park takes off and is successful in convincing emerging IT businesses to set up shop in KPK, it could usher in a new era of advancement in IT and technologies associated with it. KPK could very well be on its way to becoming Pakistan’s silicon valley, with a similar cluster of closely related startups collaborating and growing together.