SAPM on E-Commerce Senator Aon Abbas Buppi says with the help of Alibaba, an e-commerce portal will be created and transparency will be brought in this sector as govt. plans to increase e-commerce trade volume up to $9 billion by 2023.
ISLAMABAD: The government will soon set up the first e-commerce university in the country to enhance the capabilities of traders to trade online.
Special Assistant to the PM on E-Commerce, Senator Aon Abbas Buppi said this on Thursday while chairing a one-day National E-Commerce Symposium, organized by the Ministry of Commerce.
Buppi said that most of the e-commerce business is being done by the youth and the government will provide them all facilities. He said that the establishment of an e-commerce University will provide new employment opportunities to the youth in Pakistan and the country would become a part of the global supply chain which will enhance the country’s economic strength.
The SAPM said that Prime Minister Imran Khan pins high hopes on the youth and now mostly youth are in e-commerce trading, which could increase the country’s exports as well as provide ample employment opportunities. He said that similarly, the government is planning to create the first e-commerce web portal in the country, which will help in curbing illegal trade.
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He said with the help of Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba, an e-commerce portal would be created and transparency would be brought into this sector. The SAPM said the government plans to increase e-commerce trade volume up to $9 billion in the next two years by June 2023.
There are already conflicting figures in Pakistan’s e-commerce trade, however, with the current trade of $4.5 billion, “we can take it up to $9 billion,” he said. “I will take care of all the issues of e-commerce traders including State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) and other tax agencies”, he said.
He said most of the issues were related to finance, taxes, logistics data, and Ease of Doing Business (EOBD) of which “we are already aware and the government will pay full attention to this.”
Buppi 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.
He said that e-commerce leaders now have a responsibility to change the lives of 45 percent of the youth living in remote areas of the country. These services would be a great provision to their country and these young people would become an asset to the population.
He said that youth empowerment is the first priority of the government for which there is no better tool than e-commerce. He said apart from business to business, the government will solve all the problems in this sector with regard to business to company.
