Youth programmes to be used to boost e-commerce: PM aide

ISLAMABAD: The government will use the Youth Entrepreneurship Scheme (YES) and Hunarmand Pakistan Programme to promote e-commerce businesses and improve access to digital skills training, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Youth Affairs Usman Dar said on Friday.

Speaking at a virtual e-commerce youth conference, Mr Dar said that the initiatives under the Kamyab Jawan Programme will be used to promote e-commerce businesses and improve access to digital skills training.

The objective of the conference, held in collaboration with Kamyab Jawan Programme and USAID PREIA, 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 National E-Commerce Policy and the Kamyab Jawan Programme were both launched by the Prime Minister in October 2019 and aim 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 initiatives such as the Kamyab Jawan Programme to achieve its policy goal of extending access to finance and digital skills to Pakistan’s youth and SMEs.

In her opening remarks, Parliamentary Secretary for Commerce Aliya Hamza Malik said that through the National E-Commerce Policy, the government was 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, rationalising taxation structures, ensuring consumer protection, improving the ICT and telecom infrastructure, Ms Malik said.

The focused group discussions were held on six key areas of the e-commerce policy including access to finance, access to IT and internet, access to digital skills training, access to conducive startup ecosystem, empowerment of rural youth and global connectivity.