PTA-GSMA hold workshop to promote ecommerce

ISLAMABAD: Digital commerce initiatives and regulatory principles were discussed with special focus on effectiveness and transparency at the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) and GSMA workshop on Mobile Money at the PTA Headquarters on Tuesday.

Different case studies from Pakistan, Tanzania, Kenya, Philippines and India on mobile money were shared to promote ecommerce in the country.

All stakeholders discussed challenges and opportunities in the workshop to digitise payments in Pakistan. The objective of the workshop was to bring global and local insights from the branchless banking industry. 

PTA Chairman Dr Syed Ismail Shah said the mobile phone sector has shown an enormous growth, thus creating striking opportunities for service providers and consumers to utilise mobile networks for carrying out various daily life tasks such as financial transactions.

 He said Pakistan has now moved in the era of broadband.

By the end of February 2016, there were 29.8 million broadband users, depicting a teledensity of 15 percent with great potential for broadband proliferation. 

He said Pakistan was fast moving towards mobile money which facilitates not only urban class but also the rural population. He said mobile banking was a value-addition and has utmost consumer convenience wherein users can avail banking facilities through mobile communication.

He said advancements in telecom technologies have positively affected other sectors and innovative products have been introduced. 

The chairman further said branchless banking was a modern facility which will have a positive impact on the GDP growth of the country and be beneficial for the people as well.

Earlier, PTA Director General Dr Muhammad Saleem welcomed participants and said PTA and State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) were also working on mobile banking regulations to continue mutual coordination for setting up a fair and non-discriminatory regulatory framework for the mobile banking service providers.

He said PTA would continue to hold and encourage such initiatives in future for the development of the ICT industry that holds enormous potential. 

During the workshop, GSMA facilitator Lara Gidvani (Regulatory Specialist, Asia) briefed audience in detail on GSMA mobile money programme.

Asia Senior Market Engagement Manager Sophia Hasnain, Waseela Bank CEO Ghazanfar Azzam, U-Microfinance  Bank CEO Kabeer Naqvi, and Telenor EasyPaisa Head Strategy & Payments Omar Moeen Malik also shared their thoughts on potential for mobile money industry, branchless banking and digital commerce, and policy and regulatory environment for branchless banking. At the end PTA chairman presented souvenirs to the speakers.

PTA Chairman Dr Syed Ismail Shah, Member (Finance) Tariq Sultan, Member (Compliance & Enforcement) Abdul Samad, senior officials of the commercial banks, representatives from the State Bank of Pakistan, and officials from the telecom sector attended the workshop.