ISLAMABAD ( Web News )
Sardar Yasir Ilyas Khan, President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry said that e-commerce has a great future in Pakistan as the Covid-19 pandemic has unleashed the real potential of this business model for improving sales and business growth. He said that almost all businesses suffered great losses during the coronavirus, however, e-commerce was the only business model that thrived during these tough times. He said that to facilitate the business community in promoting online business, the ICCI in collaboration with Daraz has decided to hold an “E-Commerce Summit” on March 6 where Daraz team will inform the business community about methods of increasing sales through e-commerce and would register the brands/companies of the interested members at the spot for starting online business immediately. He expressed these views while inaugurating a Marketing Office of Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan Hospital Trust in Blue Area, Islamabad.
Sardar Yasir Ilyas Khan said that e-commerce was continuously growing around the world as in 2019, retail e-commerce sales worldwide reportedly amounted to USD 3.53 trillion while e-retail revenues are projected to grow to USD 6.54 trillion in 2022, which showed its tremendous potential for growth. He said that the Covid-19 pandemic has put e-commerce at the forefront of retail as those businesses that were able to adapt to digital platforms thrived during coronavirus around the world while the traditional businesses experienced decline in sales. He said that the main objective of holding the E-Commerce Summit is to support the PM’s vision for promoting the digital economy. He said that Pakistan has great potential to foster e-commerce through the adoption and exploitation of digital technologies and make it an engine for rapid economic growth. He stressed that the government should take more measures for ease of doing e-commerce business and move forward towards the digitized Pakistan that would also promote the documented economy, enhance the tax base, reduce tax evasion and improve tax revenue of the country. He said that a digital economy would also eliminate corruption in the country and promote transparency across all governments departments.
ICCI President emphasized that SBP should take urgent measures to allow e-payment gateways in Pakistan including PayPal so that more online companies like Amazon and Ebay could enter Pakistan to start online businesses. He said that policy reforms and promoting ease of doing business were the key requirements for growth of e-commerce and urged that the government should take measures to achieve these goals. He invited traders and students to take active part in the E-Commerce Summit where Daraz would provide them a comprehensive orientation about starting a successful online business besides giving them guidelines about online payment policies and procedures.