ISLAMABAD
In the $30 trillion global e-commerce market, the country’s e-commerce market is only $4 billion (0.0133 percent) in terms of revenue, which is far less than its regional competitors.
Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on E-Commerce, Senator Aon Abbas Buppi said this in a statement on Sunday, adding Pakistan is an emerging e-commerce market and has potential to excel in regional markets and also emerge as a global player in coming years.
He said that the market volume in e-commerce is bigger than the traditional trade and this is an ample opportunity for the young population to utilise it and play an effective role in the economic development. He added, “We are competing with regional and global players in the e-commerce sector”.
He said the government has introduced the country’s first zero-tax strategy for registered freelancers. “Recently, we organised an e-commerce convention in which Prime Minister Imran Khan participated and there was a very good response from different segments of society,” he remarked.
Aon said that with the personal interest of the prime minister, various initiatives were being taken for the development of the E-Commerce sector, focusing on tax and ease of doing business and freelance issues. He said payments and banking, taxation, business registration, freelancer startups, market excess, logistics and shipping, market access, consumer protection and data protection were important areas that were being worked on.
Aon said, “By promoting e-commerce trade in Pakistan, we can balance our trade deficit which will lead to improve the country’s economic growth.”
He said that the issues related to companies and individual data in e-commerce trade were resolved by launching e-Tijarat portal for which Asian Development Bank was providing financial and technical assistance. In addition, research facilities and other support are also being put in place to promote e-commerce, he added.
The e-Tijarat portal will help boost trade and help overall economic development by promoting “made in Pakistan” products in regional and global markets.
He expressed the hope that e-commerce would promote different sectors including mobile commerce, electronic funds transfer, supply chain management, internet marketing, online transaction processing, electronic data interchange (EDI),Automated data collection systems.
He said the growth of e-commerce has opened new avenues of economic growth to a country but the openness of the internet and data processing by local and international e-commerce companies had increased the risk of misuse of personal data of its citizens.
Therefore, many countries were introducing regulatory measures to curtail the risk of data breaches and its subsequent misuse.
Aoun said that the government of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) introduced the first e-commerce policy in October 2019, which would create new avenues of employment opportunities for the youth of the country.
The E-Commerce policy provided communities with a guideline on how they can take advantage of this innovative opportunity, he expressed.
The SAPM said that a new Equity Investment Policy has been approved and the e-commerce sector is being linked with Silicon Valley.
He urged the e-commerce leaders to come forward and train the country’s large youth population in this sector so that youth from remote areas like Balochistan, Gilgit-Baltistan, Sindh and other provinces could come forward and become part of the country’s economic power and gain decent employment opportunities.
