LAHORE: Punjab Finance Minister Makhdoom Hashim Jawan Bakht says the province has the potential to be `Silicon Valley of South Asia.

He was speaking at a ceremony organised by the Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB) and Punjab Board of Revenue (BoR) to celebrate the Rs100 billion revenue target through e-Stamping at Arfa Kareem Tower on Monday.

He said the government would strive hard to achieve the targets of e-procurement and e-payment during the next five years.

He said the government would pay special attention to IT sector in phase-2 of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

The minister said the revenue collection [Rs100bn] through e-Stamping system was the best example of utilising information technology for the betterment of the general public as well as improvement in governance.

`We are determined to provide an enabling environment to private sector for economic activities,` he said.Bakht said the government was striving actively to achieve maximum growth, low inflationary environment and economic stability in the country despite inheriting enormous [economic] challenges. `The IT interventions are essential and needed in all sectors, specifically for improving governance.

PITB Chairman Habibur Rehman Gilani said: `The PITB is a success story among the [Punjab] government departments and the use of information technology as an enabler is a key to better management and governance.

He said PITB had established partnership with various departments and helped [them] to conceive, implement and institutionalise IT-driven reforms.

PITB Director General Sajid Latif said the e-Stamping project had been launched in 2016 and it achieved Rs100bn revenue in 19 months.

He said as many as 5,364,934 people had utilised the e-Stamping website while 5,028,452 vouchers were paid and 3,730,198 e-Stamp papers were issued, including 320,322 judicial and 3,409,876 non-judicial.

The PITB chairman later presented a [symbolic] cheque of Rs100bn to the finance minister.