The first meeting of the China Pakistan Joint Working Group on Information Technology was held at the Pakistan Software Export Board building on January 10, 2007 for cooperation between the two countries in IT fields.

The working group decided to begin collaboration in three areas: IT Trade, where strategies would be formulated to target global markets and also increase trade between the two countries; Venture Capital Funds, where information would be exchanged on regular basis and a working plan prepared, and IT Parks, where the two countries would collaborate to build world class IT parks all over Pakistan.

The Chinese delegation comprised seventeen members including senior officials of Chinese Ministry of Information Industry and leading executives of ICT companies of China. Deputy Director General Zhao Wenzhi from Foreign Affairs Department of the Ministry of Information Industry headed the Chinese delegation. Pakistan Software Export Board’s managing director led the Pakistani team.

The working Group reviewed the current status and future directions of IT industry of both countries. The Chinese IT industry has achieved rapid growth in the last four years with domestic revenue at $48 billion. The IT exports and outsourcing in China have also experienced rapid growth and have topped the billion-dollar mark. The leading international IT research firm Gartner Group has forecasted that China will become the leading IT outsourcing country in the near future.

The Pakistani IT industry has also experienced remarkable growth over the last three years. Total industry size including global receipts of Pakistan IT companies, domestic revenue, hardware, and IT services has crossed $2 billion. "Pakistan is a rising star offering a surprising new home in South Asia for outsourced customer management," said a report by Gartner Group in July 2006.