The Ministry of Commerce on Friday organized 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 conference was organized in collaboration with Kamyab Jawan Program and USAID PREIA, according to a statement issued by the Ministry of Commerce.
The objective of the conference was to give 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 statement added.
The opening ceremony of the conference was attended by Parliamentary Secretary for Commerce Ms. Aliya Hamza Malik and Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Youth Affairs Mr. Usman Dar.
In her opening remarks the Parliamentary Secretary for Commerce said that through the National E-Commerce Policy, “the government is creating a conducive environment for E-commerce start-ups to develop and flourish in Pakistan.”
“The focus of this Government is to facilitate its young entrepreneurs by improving the regulatory environment, giving them access to finance and digital skills trainings, rationalizing taxation structures, ensuring consumer protection, improving the ICT and telecom infrastructure,” she added.
The participants of the conference were briefed about Kamyab Jawan Program, National E-commerce policy, Bank of Punjab loan application process and Agritech Ecosystem in Pakistan through presentations. The presentations apprised the participants on the latest E-commerce related developments in the country.
Prime Minister Imran Khan had launched National E-Commerce policy and the Kamyab Jawan Program in October 2019 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 to collaborate with Government run special initiative such as the Kamyab Jawan Program to achieve its policy goal of extending access to finance and digital skills to Pakistan’s youth and SMEs.
Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Youth Affairs shared that the initiatives under the Kamyab Jawan Program such as Youth Entrepreneurship Scheme (YES) and Hunarmand Pakistan Programme will be used to promote e-commerce businesses and improve access to digital skills trainings.
The conference successfully coalesced representatives from public and private sector stakeholders including start-ups, freelancers, financial institutions, national youth council, policy makers, national incubators, university students and educational institutes.