Pakistan well-positioned to develop cross-border e-commerce: Chinese official

BEIJING: The cross-border e-commerce has emerged as a new star in the global trade and with a huge young population, Pakistan is well-positioned to develop its cross-border e-commerce.

“As a newly-appointed honourable investment counsellor, I want to make my own share of contribution and provide one-stop logistics services to boost cross-border e-commerce between China and Pakistan,” Li Yiman, CEO of Zhejiang Eman Logistics said.

Starting its business in 2004 in China’s eastern city of Yiwu, Eman Logistics has devoted itself to China-Pakistan logistics and transporting aquatic products, mineral salt, ore, agricultural products, and handicrafts from Pakistan to China.

“We have also set up an office and an overseas warehouse in Karachi to facilitate China-Pak trade. Up to now, we have served over 1,500 Pakistani and Chinese enterprises,” Li Yiman said, who was recently appointed as one of the eight honourable investment counsellors (HIC) in China.

Logistics stands out as a key node in cross-border e-commerce. In a recent webinar on the development of e-commerce in Pakistan, Dr Ghulam Samad, research economist at the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE), had said that logistics is one of the basic infrastructures to develop e-commerce in Pakistan.

Similarly, a 2019 World Bank report on e-commerce in South Asia shows that inadequate cross-border e-commerce stands out as one of the major hurdles for Pakistani firms to conduct cross-border e-commerce.

To better serve Chinese and Pakistani enterprises in a cross-border e-commerce setting, Eman Logistics has also made a foray into cross-border e-commerce.

“Now, our services include e-commerce Daraz registration, sea and air e-commerce logistics. We have also partnered with Alibaba and Pakistani e-commerce companies to provide logistics services,” she told CEN.

Li Yiman said that the Pakistan National Pavilion, which was set up in 2019 in China’s small commodity base of Yiwu, has served the dual purposes of an overseas warehouse and a showcasing platform for Pakistani goods.

“We’re now promoting Pakistani goods through online live streaming selling activities on Chinese social media such as Taobao and Douyin [the Chinese version of Tiktok]. This has given the Chinese people a better understanding of Pakistan’s culture and products,” Li Yiman said.

“When I first started my business in Yiwu, one of my first clients was a Pakistani and we became partners in trade and logistics ever since. Over the years, we have witnessed the booming trade between China and Pakistan, and we are looking forward to more progress in this regard,” she said.