Ministry organises virtual ‘e-Commerce youth conference

ISLAMABAD: The Ministry of Commerce on Friday organised a virtual e-Commerce Youth Conference for consultation and implementation of the government’s e-Commerce Policy to empower the youth in the country.

The Ministry of Commerce plans a one-day virtual e-Commerce youth conference in collaboration with the Kamyab Jawan Programme, USAID and Pakistan Regional Economic Integration Activity (PREIA), a statement issued by the Ministry of Commerce said.

The objective of the conference was to provide Pakistan’s youth a platform to share their recommendations that can assist the government in improving its implementation of the national e-commerce policy to achieve its objective of youth empowerment through e-commerce.

The presentations apprised the participants on the latest e-commerce-related developments in the country.

Parliamentary Secretary for Commerce Aliya Hamza Malik said that through the national e-Commerce policy, the government is creating a conducive environment for e-commerce startups to develop and flourish in Pakistan.

The focus of the government is to facilitate its young entrepreneurs by improving the regulatory environment, giving them access to finance and digital skills training, rationalising the taxation structures, ensuring consumer protection, and improvement in the ICT and telecom infrastructure.

Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Youth Affairs Usman Dar shared that the initiatives under the Kamyab Jawan Programme such as the Youth Entrepreneurship Scheme (YES) and Hunarmand Pakistan Programme will be used to promote e-commerce businesses and improved access to digital skills training.

The National E-Commerce policy and the Kamyab Jawan Program were both launched by the Prime Minister in October 2019 and aim to leverage the digital economy for the empowerment of Pakistan’s youth.

The national e-commerce policy under its pillar “Empowering Youth and SMEs through E-commerce” aims at collaborating with the government-run special initiative such as the Kamyab Jawan Programme to achieve its policy goal of extending access to finance and digital skills to Pakistan’s youth and SMEs.

The second session with group discussions were held on six key areas of the national e-commerce policy, including access to finance, access to IT and internet, access to digital skills training, access to conducive startup ecosystem, empowerment of rural youth and global connectivity.

Commerce secretary Muhammad Sualeh Ahmad Faruqui said that the recommendations provided by the private sector during the conference will assist the National E-Commerce Council in its implementation of the national e-commerce policy.

He also acknowledged the conference organisers, presenters, moderators and participants for their efforts to generate recommendations that can improve the e-commerce ecosystem for young entrepreneurs in Pakistan.

The conference successfully coalesced representatives from the public and private sector stakeholders, including startups, freelancers, financial institutions, national youth council, policymakers, national commerce council, P@SHA, the State Bank of Pakistan, Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority, Trade Development Authority of Pakistan, Punjab Information Technology Board, national incubators, university students and representatives from the educational institutes.

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