Govt prioritize to achieve e- commerce trade target of $5 bn: SAPM

January 06, 2022: The government has prioritized achieving the E- commerce annual trade target of $ 5 billion for FY year 2021-22 to create new employment opportunities in the country, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on E-Commerce, Senator Aon Abbas Buppi said on Wednesday.

Prime Minister Imran Khan has given a target to open 10 million new jobs through e-commerce sector, he added.

Last year E- commerce trade sustain at $ 2.5 billion, he said while addressing a press conference.

He said the country currently has more than 50 percent youth population for whom there would be huge job opportunities in the e-commerce sector and10 thousand new companies have to be opened and ten thousand new people have to be trained to create more manpower in this sector.

Aon Abbas said that a new Equity Investment Policy has been Approved and the e-commerce sector is being linked with Silicon Valley.

He said that at present the global market for e-commerce is $30 trillion, of which Pakistan's share is very small. It has $4 trillion in Business to Business and $4 trillion in Business to Companies trade.

Companies' trade in e-commerce was only $120 million in 2013 and Which was increased to $364 million in 2021.

At present Pakistan is the third largest digital market in the world and in this, they are competing with India.

"We don't have the data, but at the moment Pakistan has a lot of Companies registrations," he said.

SAPM said, the government has built the first e-commerce university in the country and is pursuing a revolutionary program to provide skilled labor in the sector.

The e-commerce university will start its work by March 2022, which will provide affordable and quality education to the students.

The country needs a standard e-commerce university, he said.

He said that the government of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has introduced the first e-commerce policy in October 2019, which would create new avenues of employment opportunities for the youth of the country.

Aon Abbas said that E-commerce policy provides communities with a guideline on how they can take advantage of this innovative opportunity.

SAPM said that at present there are 5.5 million small and medium enterprises in the country which would be linked with this E-Commerce sector to attract more people in this digital business. Similarly, under the Chinese shipment model, this policy will be worked on to create more space in the sector. He said that “we are working with the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) for tax rationalization for E-commerce trade," he said.

SAPM said that Work is also underway on Ease of Doing Business (EODB) in collaboration with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which will further facilitate this sector and create new business

opportunities in the country.

APP