Digitization could add $60 billion to Pakistan economy within next 7 to 8 years, OICCI Digital Report
Digitization offers innovative employment prospects for the 23 percent of Pakistan’s population who fall in the 20-34 age group and could add $60 billion to Pakistan’s economy within the next 7 to 8 years. Overseas Investors Chamber of Commerce and Industry (OICCI) has prepared a digital report 2022 titled “Recommendations for Digital Transformation in Pakistan”.
The OICCI Management Committee presented the OICCI Digital Report 2022 entitled “Recommendations for Digital Transformation in Pakistan” to the President of Pakistan, aiming to set the country on its digital journey. The report includes suggestions on e-commerce, fintech, IT export and web 3.0 technologies, etc.
The president expressed his concern about the decline in business confidence due to the very difficult political and economic situation over the past six months. He also appreciated that OICCI took the lead in making recommendations to digitize the economy. This report provides policymakers with key recommendations on the various facets of the digital transformation of the economy, including suggestions on digital infrastructure and connectivity, government, private sector and mass digital use, emerging web 3.0 technologies and digital regulation to accelerate innovation in Pakistan . According to a research report, a 10 percent increase in broadband penetration results in a 1.4 percent increase in GDP.
Ghias Khan, Chairman OICCIemphasized that
“Digitization can also help integrate the underserved population of society, such as the remote areas of the country. About 23 million children in Pakistan are out of school and we have less than 1 doctor in 1000 people. To help Pakistan overcome these challenges,” added Ghias, “it is important to phased digitize the education and health sectors, establish national electronic health records and organize capacity-building workshops for professionals.”
The report notes that there has been tremendous development in digital financial services in recent years. However, Pakistan is still a cash-based economy with less than 5% merchants accepting digital payments. In addition to promoting digital payment methods, the government should also encourage international e-commerce companies to set up regional offices in Pakistan. Indonesia worked similarly and now the size of the e-commerce market is worth $30 billion, which is expected to reach $54 billion by 2025 and support 26 million jobs directly and indirectly.
Abdul Aleem, CE and Secretary General OICCI added: “Digitization can make government services much more efficient, increase productivity and help improve Ease of Doing Business (EODB). The Philippines can be a good example where public services were digitized under the E-Government Master Plan (EGMP) that helped the country rank 95th in the EODB 2020 rating, with an improvement of 29 steps. Our government, he continued, should take advantage of modern technologies such as machine learning, data analytics and artificial intelligence to improve competence in public departments, document the economy and increase tax revenue.
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