After so many countries, Pakistan has sent the names of 38 sellers to United States-based e-commerce company Amazon for registration on Sunday that consists of the names of the companies of surgical goads, sports goods and home textiles.
Adviser to Prime Minister on Commerce and Investment Abdul Razak Dawood announced that names of companies of other sectors will be sent for registration when the mentioned above sectors will be shortlisted by the Amazon on Thursday while having a second meeting of the National E-Commerce Council.
The adviser spoke about the importance of digital business and said that small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are being connected to e-commerce platforms in this pandemic. He said that the digital world has been utilized the most during the COVID-19 around the world to avail of different opportunities to stabilize and carry on the economy; therefore, it is now a “vital sector” nowadays.
Furthermore, Dawood showed the video of the Director of the World Health Organization to the meeting members in which the director has appreciated the country’s policy on e-commerce and their efforts to bring business on digital world. Besides, Dawood praised the efforts of private and public companies to assist them to implement the policy.
Meanwhile the State Bank of Pakistan has said that they have developed regulatory framework to facilitate B2C cross-borders. They said that the framework would be implemented when e-commerce module would be integrated in the Web-based One Customs. E-commerce module is under development at Federal Board of Revenue (FBR).
The provincial governments of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab told the meeting participants about the budget they have allocated for e-commerce in their provincial budget to support the ruling party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf during the pandemic.
However, the Consumer Rights Commission of Pakistan and the Consumer Protection Councils of Punjab and Lahore suggested changing the consumer laws of provinces and federal government to include e-commerce and solve the arising disputes earlier.
The representative informed about the webinars they have prepared to train judicial officers and academia people about digitalized consumer protection laws.
Besides, the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) said that they have planned initiatives to promote e-commerce. They revealed that they have classified sectors separately to increase their growth rate in new form of business.
SECP has registered the names of 152 companies on their portals, so far. During meeting, it was told by commerce secretary that Commerce Ministry has been in contact with foreign trade of Pakistan to promote exporters and sellers of the country internationally.
