President underscores training needs for ecommerce benefits

ISLAMABAD: President Arif Alvi on Wednesday underscored the need to train young entrepreneurs to make them acquainted with the dynamics of e-commerce.

Alvi asked the relevant organizations to help address the issues being faced by e-commerce exporters. He urged the stakeholders to encourage and facilitate e-commerce’s sellers to enhance exports of the country.

“Pakistan’s inclusion in the Amazon sellers list would greatly help in the diversification of exports and increase Pakistan’s access to international markets,” he said. “Inclusion in Amazon’s sellers’ list would boost the country’s exports as well as generate enormous employment opportunities for young entrepreneurs.”

The president made these remarks while chairing a briefing, given by Saqib Azhar, CEO of Enablers on emerging opportunities in the wake of Pakistan’s inclusion in Amazon’s list. The meeting was attended by National Vocational and Technical Training Commission (NAVTTC) Chairman Javed Hassan, Senior Joint Secretary Ministry of Commerce Aisha Humera Moriani, senior members of various e-commerce associations, representatives of the Fedeal Board of Revenue and State Bank of Pakistan, and senior officials of the government.

The president appreciated the efforts made by the ministry of commerce for the promotion of e-commerce.

Underlining the importance of ecommerce, Alvi said Amazon is an important platform providing opportunities to youth and small and medium enterprises to increase their outreach to international markets. He emphasised the need to focus on the value-addition of products so that they could have a competitive edge in the global market.

NAVTTC chairman informed the meeting that his organization was taking effective measures to train young entrepreneurs in the field of e-commerce enabling them to capitalise on emerging economic opportunities.”

Approximately 1.7 million small and medium businesses around the world are selling on US-based ecommerce giant Amazon.com.

Last month, Amazon allowed Pakistani businesses to sell from the platform. Amazon has created more U.S. jobs in the last decade than any other company.

These are jobs that pay at least $15 per hour, more than double the federal minimum wage, and come with comprehensive, industry-leading benefits. Combining our investments in infrastructure and compensation to our employees, we’ve invested more than $350 billion in the U.S. since 2010.

It has invested more than $30 billion—between 2019 and 2020—in logistics, tools, services, programs, and people to foster the growth of sellers.