PayPal eyes ‘great opportunity’ in Pakistan

Comment comes after IT minister said govt would invite PayPal, other tech giants to start operations in Pakistan

Paypal has welcomed reports that Pakistan would invite it, along with Amazon and eBay, to start operations in the country, saying it sees Pakistan as a market with great opportunity.

“As a global payments company, PayPal is constantly innovating and looking for new ways to meet the needs of our customers around the world,” a PayPal spokesperson told ValueWalk.

“As we look at expanding our global footprint, we see Pakistan as a market with great opportunity, but we are not able to comment on future plans.”



Earlier this week, Minister of IT and Telecommunication Anusha Rehman said that Pakistan was going to invite global technology companies like Amazon, eBay and PayPal to start operations in Pakistan. Pakistan’s recent inclusion in Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) white-list, it is expected, will encourage technology companies to explore Pakistan as a viable market.



However, experts did not see inclusion in FATF’s white-list as a sufficient condition for tech companies to consider Pakistan.

“Theoretically, bringing Paypal, Amazon and eBay will significantly boost the e-commerce space,” Karachi Institute of Technology and Entrepreneurship (KITE) Founder and President Afaque Riaz Ahmed says. “But for that to happen, the government would need to have the necessary legal and financial regulatory framework in place.”



A recent report by GSMA pointed out that there was significant potential for growth in Pakistan’s digital economy, but that there were also significant challenges like low digital literacy, weak regulatory and legal frameworks, and a lack of awareness regarding what digital commerce is and how to access it.