ISLAMABAD - Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on e-commerce, Senator Aon Abbas Buppi, on Thursday said the government would soon lay the foundation of Pakistan’s first e-commerce university. “We would soon be setting up the first e-commerce university, which would enhance the capabilities of e-commerce trader’s not only in Pakistan but also in the emerging e-commerce international market,” he said. Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on e-commerce, Senator Aon Abbas Buppi said this while chairing the one day ‘National e-commerce Symposium’ organized by the Ministry of Commerce, said a press release issued here. 

  Meanwhile, SAPM on e-commerce, Senator Aon Abbas Buppi, said the most of the  e-commerce businesses were being done by the youth and now at this time, the government would provide them all facilities.

He said establishment of e-commerce university would provide new employment opportunities to the youth in Pakistan and the country would become a part of the global supply chain which would enhance our economic strength.

The SAPM said Prime Minister Imran Khan has high hopes from the youth and now mostly youth were in e-commerce trading, which could increase the country’s exports as well as provide ample employment opportunities.

He said the government was planning to create the first e-commerce web portal in the country, which would help in curbing illegal trade.

He said with the help of Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba, an e-commerce portal would be created and transparency would be brought in this sector.

The SAPM said the government plans to increase e-commerce trade volume up to US $ nine billion in the next two years by June 2023.

There were already conflicting figures in Pakistan’s e-commerce trade, however, with the current trade of US $ 4.5 billion, “we can take it up to US $ 9 billion,” he said.

“I will take care of all the issues of e-commerce traders including State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) and other tax agencies,” he said.

He said the most of the issues were related to finance, taxes, logistics data and Ease of Doing Business (EOBD) of which “we are already aware and the government will pay full attention to this.”

Aon Abbas urged the e-commerce leaders to come forward and train the country’s large youth population in this sector so that youth from remote areas like Balochistan, Gilgit-Baltistan, Sindh and other provinces could come forward and become part of the country’s economic power and gain decent employment opportunities.

He said e-commerce leaders now had a responsibility to change lives of 45 per cent of the youth living in remote areas of the country.

These services would be a great provision to their country and these young people would become an asset to our population.

He said youth empowerment was the first priority of the government for which there was no better tool than e-commerce.