ISLAMABAD ( MEDIA REPORT )
Prime Minister Mian Nawaz Sharif has expressed concern over the inability of the Ministry of Commerce in achieving progress on developing a national e-commerce policy despite working on it for more than a year.
An official letter of the PM Secretariat, a copy of which is available with Dawn, said the prime minister asked for the formulation of a draft e-policy framework within a period of 30 days.
The criticism on the ministry’s performance comes at a time when it has submitted a draft national report on e-commerce to the Prime Minister Secretariat for consideration.
The commerce ministry estimates the size of e-commerce in Pakistan would reach $1 billion by 2020.
Stating that the prime minister found the policy ‘unsatisfactory’, the letter adds: “The premier has noted with concern that the commerce ministry has apparently not been able to achieve substantial progress on e-commerce.”
The prime minister wants the entire exercise to be completed by September 2016 for placement of the draft policy before cabinet for approval.
The ministry was asked to establish a working group with representatives from public as well as the private sector to expedite the work.
Earlier, the Ministry of Commerce had constituted a joint working group on the formulation of e-commerce policy framework which included representatives of all relevant ministries/departments.
The working group has finalised the outline of the framework, which was submitted to the prime minister secretariat for review.
The letter came up with significant inputs on the draft framework and suggested several ways to the committee in formulating the draft policy.
Recommendations: According to the letter, the draft e-policy should incorporate availability and reliability of ICT infrastructure/platforms, development of supportive financial services regulations including laws for e-signature, e-contracting and a national platform for e-commerce related financial transactions.
The proposed policy suggests development of logistic systems powered by GPS and cell phones, up-gradation and integration of Pakistan Post’s Operations in consultation with the ministry of communications, so that it can be positioned to benefit from development of e-commerce and changes in trade regulations, to make them more supportive of e-commerce.
The draft policy also look into the involvement of educational institutions for promoting entrepreneurial and consumer digital literacy, regulation on privacy, consumer protection and conflict resolution, institutional arrangement for continuous analysis of e-commerce.
In Pakistan, broadband penetration rate has doubled every single year since 2013. The Global Findex report shows Pakistan lead mobile banking transactions in South Asia with 11 per cent of citizens using mobile phones to carry out financial transactions.
Pakistan has electronic transaction laws and has recently passed cyber crime laws, while data and consumer protection laws are pending for approval.
Published in Dawn, August 9th, 2016