World Bank’s technical, financial support sought for ecommerce

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Wednesday sought technical and financial supports from the World Bank to implement its ecommerce policy.

Adviser to Prime Minister of Pakistan for Commerce Razak Dawood said technical and financial support from the World Bank will be more meaningful in supporting government’s reforms goals.

Dawood said this during a meeting with the newly appointed World Bank Country Director Najy Benhassine.

“Different matters for mutual cooperation were discussed, particularly support for institutional strengthening of ministry of commerce and ecommerce activities under the ecommerce policy,” he said in a tweet.

Last year, the federal cabinet approved the country’s first ecommerce policy framework that envisages new regulations and consumer protection laws in the Rs40 billion online shopping market.

There is huge potential in e-commerce industry as global ecommerce reached $3.4 trillion while ecommerce in Pakistan stands at $2 billion. In Pakistan, sales of local and foreign ecommerce sites surged 93.7 percent to Rs40.1 billion. The e-commerce value didn’t include cash-on-delivery transactions that account for 60 percent of all the e-retail transactions. Number of online merchants exceeded 1,242.

The pace of increase in e-commerce adoption in Pakistan has been encouraging over the past few years, but the country still lags behind the regional and comparable economies in terms of e-commerce.

Pakistan has more than 2,000 IT companies and call centers and the number is growing every year. There are more than 300,000 English-speaking IT professionals with expertise in current and emerging IT products and technologies and 13 software technology parks. More than 20,000 IT graduates and engineers are produced each year.

The meeting with the World Bank’s official also discussed further avenues of cooperation under the strategic trade policy framework.

“We were in agreement on the way forward,” said Dawood. “MOC (ministry of commerce) looks forward to keep working closely with WB to realise these goals, with support from the country director Benhassine and his team.”