Federal Commerce Secretary Sardar Ahmad Nawaz Sukhera has said that the government is committed to make "Digital Pakistan" with less human interaction as technological assistance is the only solution to various problems. He was speaking at the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCC) here on Friday. Along with LCCI office-bearers, the secretary unveiled the plaques of four facilitation centres set up at the Lahore Chamber.
Sardar Ahmad Nawaz Sukhera said that digital Pakistan Program is initiated with a vast vision. For that purpose, two major things are ensured: one is E-commerce expansion to revolutionize the businesses. Pakistan is one of the few countries of the world which are adopting E-Commerce. "We are also working on international payment gateway," he added. Second one is recognition of importance of social media and to utilize it as a key tool for digitalization. He said that ministry of commerce has engaged all its attached organization and commercial counselors around the world on twitter and other social media handles to address the queries and issues and they all respond there within hours. He said, "We have to access the untapped potential of African Countries," he added.
He said that information is a power and if we don't have research data or information about one's market, we can't get advantages. We should get advantages of China Pak FTA (free trade agreement), he said.
Speaking on the occasion, LCCI President Irfan Iqbal Sheikh said that Pakistan is facing stiff economic challenges including devaluation, exorbitant hike in policy rate, mounting inflation, fiscal deficit and shrinking of GDP. In this scenario, exports hold paramount importance for Pakistan's economy as they are the main source of revenue generation, employment creation and maintaining balance of payments stability. "As Pakistan aims to become a competitive economy in the region and grow above 7%, it is imperative for us to enhance our export revenues to deal with multi-dimensional economic challenges that have confronted our nation," he added.
Irfan Iqbal Sheikh said that there is a need of collective actions for exploring new export markets as about 55 percent of the Pakistan's exports go to just 10 countries. "We have to take concrete steps to fetch better export revenues from untapped potential markets like Africa, Russia, South America and Central Asia."
He said realizing the importance of Africa as a potential market; we have established an Africa Desk at LCCI for facilitating our members and addressing the complexities involved in enhancing exports to Africa. Furthermore, we are taking three export oriented business delegations to Africa in coming months. We are planning to visit Ghana and Nigeria in March, Algeria and Morocco in April, and Egypt & Sudan in June this year, he added.