ISLAMABAD: Alibaba Group delegation, led by Max Bittner, called on Finance Minister Senator Ishaq Dar here on Friday and expressed interest in investing in Pakistan’s e-commerce sector.
Alibaba Group is China’s leading group in online commerce, with its Taobao platform estimated to hold more than 90 percent of the consumer-to-consumer market and its Tmall platform is believed to have over half of business-to-consumer transactions.
Welcoming the delegation, the minister said that Alibaba Group has established itself as one of the leading e-commerce companies of the world. He said there was growing emphasis on increasing role of e-commerce in global trade as an effective means of promoting small business exports, entrepreneurship and exports diversification.
The minister said that in Pakistan e-commerce was a growing business and has great potential for growth. He said this sector has been doubling in size every year and is projected to surpass $1 billion in 2020. He said that Pakistan had adequate ICT infrastructure in place for facilitating fast developing e-commerce sector and there was exponential growth in mobile broadband access to nearly 26 million people.
He said Pakistan had already introduced 3G and 4G technologies. With more than 11 percent citizens using mobile phones for financial transactions, Pakistan is the regional leader in mobile banking transactions in South Asia, the minister remarked. He said that expanding e-commerce could further facilitate the present government’s aim of inclusive economic growth, promoting socio-economic development and providing livelihood for the marginalised segments of society, including women.
Dar welcomed and appreciated Alibaba Group’s interest in investing in Pakistan’s e-commerce sector. He also referred to the meeting between Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Alibaba Group Chairman Jack Ma on the sidelines of World Economic Forum at Davos in January, 2017 where Jack expressed his intention to establish an e-commerce platform in Pakistan and support small scale industries. He also urged the Alibaba Group to invest in Pakistan’s digital trade industry.
On the occasion, members of the visiting delegation said they were happy to see that great headway being made in the realm of digitisation in Pakistan and that they have recognised the country’s efforts for development of e-commerce. They said that the delegation was impressed by the progress made by Pakistan in the field of IT, Telecom and Broadband penetration.
