Quantum computing, Pakistan and India have chosen China and the United States respectively

The U.S. and Indian Critical and Emerging Technologies Initiative (iCET) held its first meeting at the White House. Led by their national security advisors, the two countries agreed to launch a series of bilateral initiatives and "welcomed new cooperation" to expand their technology partnership in a number of areas, including, among others, strengthening cooperation in high-performance computing. This covers areas such as artificial intelligence and quantum technology.

U.S. and Indian national security advisors

In addition to the government-to-government collaboration, Microsoft has started a series of lectures on quantum computing in India in 2019, and IBM has announced cloud access to its quantum systems for top Indian universities. It can be said that in the field of quantum computing, India has completely fallen to the US.

India will also participate in the U.S. restrictions on China in the semiconductor sector. The overall context of the iCET conference is clear: the West is increasingly concerned about its dependence on Chinese factories and industries. In the past year, both the US and the EU have passed significant legislation aimed at promoting a sovereign semiconductor ecosystem and reducing dependence on China.

Meanwhile, India's neighbor, Pakistan, has a different view. Pakistani technology experts believe that the country's future information technology (IT) development is in line with that of China, which is making wonders in artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, quantum computing and other high-end industries.

Naveed Iftikhar, co-founder of Pakistan's Automcamp, said China has made significant progress in research and development (R&D) and human resource training. He stressed, "Pakistan needs more cooperation with China to train our human resources and do more R&D."

Hussain Nadim, a leading Pakistani IT expert, said China dominates in R&D because it is one of the leaders in artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, quantum computing and other industries.

He argues, "Even with just one percent of Chinese technology cooperation, we can do wonders in improving our technological capabilities. Pakistan needs to 'de-securitize' the technology sector and focus on the business, commercial and training side. We also need to have information technology corridors, which is the future of Pakistan and the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor."

Hamza Saeed Orakzai, director of planning and regulatory affairs at the Special Technology Zones Authority (STZA) in Pakistan, said, "About two months ago, we established the China-Pakistan Science and Technology Cooperation Center in Beijing. Recently, we also held a webinar with about 5,000 Chinese technology companies and delegations."

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