Prime Minister Advisor on Commerce, Industries and Production and Investment, Abdul Razak Dawood on Monday said that the government will soon announce incentives for the local manufacturers of 4G and 5G mobile sets.
He disclosed this while addressing stakeholders' consultation on E-Commerce policy implementation jointly organized by the Commerce Ministry, USAID and National Information Technology Board (NITB).
The government is now reducing the cost on telephone and would very soon announce incentives for 4G and 5G telephone manufactures in the country to get things moving.
"I know in Pakistan implementation on something takes a little longer or more time but I assure you categorically that implementation on E-Commerce policy will be done expeditiously. We, FBR and provincial departments are working dynamically and we will get it done," he added.
He said the E-Commerce Policy came with full participation of the stakeholders; the Cabinet approved the E-Commerce Policy and committee was constituted under his chairmanship, he stated.
"We have had three meetings up till now and I cannot express the enthusiasm that has been generated so far on it. This is not a rice policy or textile policy rather it's a policy that transforms the country particularly provides benefits to the youth. In one of the meetings, average age of participants who came to the Ministry of Commerce was around 30-32 years, absolutely young people, with enthusiasm asking to do something as they are ready for it. We want to remove all the hurdles we have at various levels. Commerce has left this task to NITB which is closely working with P@SHA and USAID," he continued.
Razak Dawood maintained that there was positive enthusiasm among the youth with respect to E-Commerce.
"We all say that this ranking is poor or that ranking is not so good but please particularly the youth of our country, don't worry about the ranking. Once we get it together we will move in a very aggressive way and we look towards the youth to get rid of those stoppers, capitalize on the enablers and capture lost ground," he maintained.
As Pakistan moves towards digitization, there are many ills in the country will be able to get rid of, as it minimize interaction with people and everything will be online, then corruption will nose-dive, inefficiency will go down and we will move in much faster way, Dawood contended.
Another benefit from E-Commerce, he added are those people or businesses interested in their brands, will have better advantage. He said internationally acceptable brands are few. The private sector has to invest in brands and improve their quality.
He said that one of his key agendas is exports but he was very sad to see a few months ago that there were different set of documents for exports and different set for services. Pakistan's total exports of services were $ 5 billion but there will be a quantum jump in future in services exports when hurdles are removed.
Additional Secretary Commerce, Javed Akbar, read the message of Secretary Commerce, Sardar Ahmed Nawas Sukehera.
The representative of Pakistan Association of Pakistan Software Houses Association for IT, and ITES (P@SHA)in his address said that 70 million people in Pakistan have access through their mobile phones but access to market is still a bit away and the nearest is 400 kilometers away from here.
He said, it's time to invest in E-Commerce and there is need for facilitation of payments especially accepting international payments is a challenge.
We know all the financial institutions work together as an Association and as an industry. But the E-Commerce is the magic movement where all of them have to work together for single E-Commerce transaction. For this technology, payment and logistics must work, the sellers must have inventory.
Commenting on public procurement in Pakistan, he said that the government is the largest party and it should facilitate E-commerce with respect to procurement rules, adding that there should be a quota for SMEs and startups.
The representative of NITB Shahabhat Ali Shah said that the private sector must come in all those critical projects which we want to roll out in the next five years down the road. A lot of thought process has gone in developing E-Commerce Policy and NITB has been given the mandate to implement the policy.
He said 95 per cent policy was related to how to formulate harder and softer infrastructure which implies sellers on one side and buyers on the other side. "We are dispatching our goods across the border which has its own challenges and needs a clear mechanism to transport goods across Pakistan and receive remittances."
He further argued that without the support of private sector implementation on E-Commerce Policy will be very hard for Pakistan, adding that private and public sectors have to be on one page.
"We need to create a brand of Pakistan's E-Commerce but whether we would be able to make this brand successful and whether the private sector will come in that's where the government help would be sought," he added.
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