ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan government is developing a strategy to export integrated circuit (IC) design services, aiming to boost the skills of students and young professionals and generate foreign exchange by entering the global semiconductor industry, a government official said on Friday.
Semiconductors, also known as “chips,” are vital electronic components underpinning nearly all technological applications, significantly influencing regional, national and global industry development, economic performance and growth, as outlined in the Pakistan National Semiconductor Plan.
The global semiconductor market, currently valued at approximately $425 billion annually, is projected to reach $1 trillion by 2030.
Chips are integral to a wide array of downstream equipment and devices, such as smartphones, cars and medical devices. The market for chip-incorporating equipment is estimated to be at least $4 trillion annually, yet Pakistan’s share is less than $50 million.
“We have been working on a plan to develop an IC design cluster in Pakistan through training of students and young professionals,” Aisha Humera Moriani, additional secretary at Pakistan’s information technology and telecom ministry, told Arab News.
She said the ministry was working to boost the IC design skills through public-private partnership, following a push from the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC), a civil-military hybrid forum to fix the country’s ailing economy.
“We want to export our IC design services to the world at the first stage to earn foreign exchange and create more job opportunities for the youth,” she added.
Moriani explained that Pakistan was not planning IC manufacturing at this stage since this was a “resource extensive” task, though “in the longer run we would want to set up IC manufacturing foundry with foreign investment.”
The global semiconductor industry is dominated by companies from the United States, Taiwan, China, South Korea and Japan while Pakistani universities and the private sector have been looking for government support to enter the market.
“Pakistan’s share in the global semiconductor industry is negligible at the moment as we lack government support, funds and the required human resource training,” Dr. Saad Ahmed Qazi, dean of the electrical and computer engineering faculty at Karachi’s NED University, told Arab News.
“The government should at least provide software for the training of relevant students to each university that can cost up to $50,000 each,” Qazi, who is one of the authors of Pakistan National Semiconductor Plan, 2022, said.
He informed there were three crucial parts of the IC, including designing on specific software, manufacturing and verification and testing.
“The designing and testing are cost effective processes and Pakistan can make a difference with a little initial investment of around $250 million,” he continued.
“The IC manufacturing is a resource extensive job as one has to set up a foundry for it, so Pakistan could enter into it at a later stage,” he explained, adding that some public and private universities, including NUST, FAST, LUMS and NED, were already working on the IC design in their respective faculties along with the students.
“We also need to improve our quality of education, especially in the fields of electrical, computer and electronics engineering, to produce skilled professionals for the sophisticated technology,” he said.
Qazi said three major companies, including DreamBig, Nunami and Xcelerium, had recently opened their design centers in Pakistan to export the services.
“The government should provide conducive environment for foreign investments to increase the number of IC design companies,” he added.
Pakistan plans to develop ‘chip design cluster’ to enter global semiconductor industry
https://arab.news/9vjvq
Pakistan plans to develop ‘chip design cluster’ to enter global semiconductor industry
- The government aims to export integrated circuit design services by enhancing the skills of young professionals
- Experts say developing IC design and testing capabilities can open lucrative international market for Pakistan
Tens of thousands flee northwest Pakistan over fears of military operation
- More than 70,000 people, mostly women and children, have fled remote Tirah region bordering Afghanistan
- Government says no military operation underway or planned in Tirah, a town in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province
BARA, Pakistan: More than 70,000 people, mostly women and children, have fled a remote region in northwestern Pakistan bordering Afghanistan over uncertainty of a military operation against the Pakistani Taliban, residents and officials said Tuesday.
Pakistan’s Defense Minister Khawaja Mohammad Asif has denied the claim by residents and provincial authorities. He said no military operation was underway or planned in Tirah, a town in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
Speaking at a news conference in Islamabad, he said harsh weather, rather than military action, was driving the migration. His comments came weeks after residents started fleeing Tirah over fears of a possible army operation.
The exodus began a month after mosque loudspeakers urged residents to leave Tirah by Jan. 23 to avoid potential fighting. Last August, Pakistan launched a military operation against Pakistani Taliban in the Bajau r district in the northwest, displacing hundreds of thousands of people.
Shafi Jan, a spokesman for the provincial government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, posted on X that he held the federal government responsible for the ordeal of the displaced people, saying authorities in Islamabad were retracting their earlier position about the military operation.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Suhail Afridi, whose party is led by imprisoned former Prime Minister Imran Khan, has criticized the military and said his government will not allow troops to launch a full-scale operation in Tirah.
The military says it will continue intelligence-based operations against Pakistani Taliban, who are known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP. Though a separate group, it has been emboldened since the Afghan
Taliban returned to power in 2021. Authorities say many TTP leaders and fighters have found sanctuary in Afghanistan and that hundreds of them have crossed into Tirah, often using residents as human shields when militant hideouts are raided.
Caught in the middle are the residents of Tirah, who continued arriving in Bara.
So far, local authorities have registered roughly 10,000 families — about 70,000 people — from Tirah, which has a population of around 150,000, said Talha Rafiq Alam, a local government administrator overseeing the relief effort. He said the registration deadline, originally set for Jan. 23, has been extended to Feb. 5.
He said the displaced would be able to return once the law-and-order situation improves.
Among those arriving in Bara and nearby towns was 35-year-old Zar Badshah, who said he left with his wife and four children after the authorities ordered an evacuation. He said mortar shells had exploded in villages in recent weeks, killing a woman and wounding four children in his village. “Community elders told us to leave. They instructed us to evacuate to safer places,” he said.
At a government school in Bara, hundreds of displaced lined up outside registration centers, waiting to be enrolled to receive government assistance. Many complained the process was slow.
Narendra Singh, 27, said members of the minority Sikh community also fled Tirah after food shortages worsened, exacerbated by heavy snowfall and uncertain security.
“There was a severe shortage of food items in Tirah, and that forced us to leave,” he said.
Tirah gained national attention in September, after an explosion at a compound allegedly used to store bomb-making materials killed at least 24 people. Authorities said most of the dead were militants linked to the TTP, though local leaders disputed that account, saying civilians, including women and children, were among the dead.
