Punjab gears up to embrace Web 3.0

LAHORE: Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Parvez Elahi has constituted a 22-member committee to adopt Web 3.0 in the province.

Punjab Finance Minister Mohsin Leghari will be the convener whereas Punjab IT Minister Dr Arslan Khalid will be the co-convener of the committee.

Dr Arslan Khalid said that under Web 3.0, the government wants to find avenues in ‘new economy’, ‘tech research and development (R&D)’ and create a pool of new talent that can be part of the Web 3 ecosystem.

The committee will engage relevant global stakeholders and establish their R&D centres and innovation labs, he said, adding that in this regard, the committee will give its recommendations and propose specific actions to be taken by the government.

“The committee will deliberate in detail by engaging a range of stakeholders from industry, academia and government to arrive at a robust roadmap and concrete action items for the adoption of Web 3.0 ecosystem,” Dr Arslan said.

As per the notification, the members of the committee will also propose action items to explore other areas of Web 3.0 like Metaverse as well as Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) and suggest concrete actions for implementation.

Additionally, the committee will also be responsible for suggesting measures to create an enabling environment taking into account the legal, financial and regulatory frameworks of Pakistan.

The members of the committee will also study the global best practices being adopted by different countries on these subjects including but not limited to the UK, US, China, and Japan. The committee will also suggest the implementation of the R&D regime in the context.

The committee will study all aspects of cryptocurrencies, virtual currencies, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and Metaverse pertaining to its pros and cons; legal, operational and taxation issues; implications, adoption in reference to trading, mining, legal provisions and all other related issues.

The PITB headquarters at Arfa Software Technology Park (ASTP) will provide logistic and secretarial support to the committee.