ISLAMABAD: Adviser to the Prime Minister on Commerce and Investment Abdul Razak Dawood has said the government was committed to empowering the women by providing them with e-commerce platforms and promoting digital businesses in the country.
“The Women Economic Empowerment Group (WEEG) will be made operational soon so that dedicated initiatives for women entrepreneurs could be launched,” the adviser said in a statement issued by the Ministry of Commerce on Saturday.
He added that ‘WCom’, a mobile app, was also being developed in the near future to facilitate youth and women entrepreneurs and promote digital business culture across Pakistan.
Dawood appreciated the progress made by provinces in terms of encouraging e-commerce platforms through tax facilitation and promotion of digital payments. The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government has reduced the general sales tax (GST) for online platforms to two per cent, while Punjab has decreased it five per cent, he noted.
The adviser said a sub-committee on ‘shift to digital payments’ will work with the Small and Medium Entrepreneurs (SMEs) sector as well as logistics companies to ensure capacity building and to monitor the progress.
“I chaired the second national e-commerce council meeting, wherein discussions were held on the implementation of the Pakistan e-commerce policy as well as progress made in the last six months; breakthrough with Amazon, cross border facilitation etc.,” he added.
The adviser further noted that the trend of e-commerce had increased rapidly in recent years with the development and easy accessibility of the internet.
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the importance of e-commerce had increased manifolds, making it an extremely vital sector for the economy, he added.
Dawood stressed the importance of directing the resources towards digital adoption and connecting the SMEs to e-platforms across the globe, while exploring new market opportunities for them.
