Minister of State for Information Technology and Telecommunication Anusha Rahman. PHOTO: FILE
ISLAMABAD: Minister of State for Information Technology and Telecommunication Anusha Rahman on Monday said it was indispensable for Pakistan to have a functioning commerce gateway to act as a bridge between merchants’ websites and financial institutions in order to legitimately process e-transactions.
“The IT ministry will continue supporting and facilitating e-commerce and e-payment gateway in Pakistan,” said Rahman while chairing a meeting of the Inter-Ministerial Committee for establishing the e-payment gateway in Pakistan.
“E-commerce being a major component of economic development is a vital element of national economic policies across the globe,” Rahman said.
“For successful establishment of an e-commerce gateway, a comprehensive e-commerce policy, comprising guidelines, rules and regulations along with dispute resolution and remedial mechanism for consumers, is a must.” This, she said, would work as a trust-building measure.
The minister stressed that all stakeholders should adopt a holistic approach enabling a fully functional e-commerce value chain in Pakistan.
She was of the view that after the SBP’s Payment System Operators and Payment System Providers, the Ministry of Commerce should establish a mechanism for coordinating with international players like Paypal and Alibaba.
SBP representatives apprised the minister that the central bank had issued four licences to major banks for branchless banking which was now operational country-wide.
The SBP is also processing applications received from other banks for domestic transactions.
“Our export-based remittances as reported by the SBP are not representing actual figures,” said Rahman, asking the SBP to issue an advisory to all concerned in this regard so that actual figures could be reflected.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 24th, 2015.
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