KARACHI, April 18: A consortium of banks on Friday entered into an agreement to act as ‘joint lead arranger’ to mobilise funds for construction of country’s first IT Tower being built by the Karachi Development Company Ltd (KDCL) at an estimated cost of Rs12.5 billion.

The Ijara Financing Inc are the exclusive financial advisors for the 47-storey IT tower complex.

The member banks of the consortium are: National Bank of Pakistan, Arif Habib Bank, Emirates Global Islamic Bank and Atlas Bank Ltd.

Speaking at the signing of the accord, State Bank of Pakistan Deputy Governor Yaseen Anwar appreciated the commitment of consortium banks, and said it was even more encouraging that huge funds were being mobilised at a time when generally a credit crunch was being badly felt in the US.

“It shows that there is a good liquidity in our banking and financial sector,” he said.

Yaseen Anwar further said that the complex would send strong signals around the world and help attract foreign direct investment (FDI) which was badly needed for a sustained economic growth.

He said that the country had witnessed a unique experience as 80 per cent of national assets were shifted to the private sector in a couple of years. “Therefore, private-public partnership in the IT complex will be another landmark achievement, particularly at a time when other nations have already moved ahead.”

City Nazim Syed Mustafa Kamal, who is also chairman of the KDCL, said that the IT complex was originally conceived by the KDCL, and it would provide jobs to over 40,000 people, of whom 50 per cent would be women.

He disclosed that work had already been started on the complex site near Civic Centre.

Work pertaining to designing and construction has been awarded to the IJM Corporation of Malaysia, and the project would be completed in 30 months.

The IT Tower complex would have a 10,000-seat call centre, which would be the largest in the world, he said.

He disclosed that there was an overwhelming response to the call centre as 5,000 seats had been booked, “which compelled us to stop further booking.”

The nazim said that there was a great potential and Pakistan could have its due share in the IT sector and it was the right time when India has reached a saturation point and the IT business is shifting to Philippines and South Africa.