Monday September 2, 2019 BIZIND
B
4-5
Eyeing the huge potential of China’s eco-
nomic growth, the country’s policymakers
have made precise arrangements for high-
quality development, amid measures to
further boost consumption.
Efforts will be made to improve
regional economic planning featuring
complementary advantages and high-
quality development and to upgrade basic
industries and industrial chains, accord-
ing to the fifth meeting of the Central
Committee for Financial and Economic
Affairs in August.
“China’s current regional develop-
ment is doing well, while the structure
of economic development is undergoing
profound changes, and central cities and
city clusters are becoming the major ves-
sels for development,” the meeting said.
Facing mounting risks and challengesboth at home and abroad, China has seen
in-depth implementation of its coordi-
nated regional development strategy, with
efforts to drive the development of the
Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, the Yangtze
Economic Belt and the Guangdong-Hong
Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.
In its latest strategic move to fur-
ther open up the economy and balance
regional development, China unveiled a
master plan for six new pilot free trade
zones (FTZ), located in the provincial-lev-
el regions of Shandong, Jiangsu, Guangxi,
Hebei, Yunnan and Heilongjiang.
Analysts believed that with constant
optimization of the regional structure, theefficiency of resource allocation has been
improved in an all-round way, leading to
faster formation of the driving force for
high-quality development.
The move will further unleash China’s
growth potential and invigorate the
driving force of economic development,
laying a solid ground for sustainable
growth of the economy, said Xu Hongcai,
a deputy director of the economic policy
commission at the China Association of
Policy Science in Beijing.
To upgrade China’s industrial base
and modernize its industrial chain, the
meeting on Tuesday also called for efforts
to combine government guidance and thePolicy toolkit to further vitalize China’s
high-quality growth, boost innovation
W
ith increasing digiti-
zation and internet
accessibility, Pakistan’s
e-commerce market is one of the
fastest growing in the world, with a
considerable surge in online mer-
chants, e-commercial platforms
and online payment facilities.
According to new data released
by the State Bank of Pakistan, the
size of the country’s e-commerce
market has increased by 92 per-
cent to 99.3 billion rupees ($640.3
million) during the fiscal year
2017-18 as compared to the previ-
ous year. The size of the market
was 51.8 billion rupees ($332 mil-
lion) in the previous fiscal year.
The number of registered e-
commerce merchants was 496 in
the first quarter of the fiscal year
2017-18, reaching nearly 1,100 by
year end, and was over 1,200 in
the first quarter of 2018-19, show-
ing an exponential growth in e-
commerce activities in the country.
Pakistan has e-commerce
companies in almost every major
sector from retail and ride-hailing
to property and car purchasing.
Benefits such as lower transaction
costs, ease of selection of various
products while sitting at home,
wider selection range, opportunity
for making informed purchase
decisions based on online reviews
and on-time delivery process are
the main sources of attraction for
consumers, paving the way for the
industry to flourish.
Leading online businesses in
Pakistan in retail are Daraz, Yayvo
and HumMart, whereas ride-hail-
ing services have been overtaken
mostly by the global and regional
giants Uber and Careem.
Additionally, PakWheels and
Zameen are the largest online
marketplaces for car and property
shoppers and sellers in Pakistan.
Among food delivery service pro-viders, FoodPanda is most popular.
The industry has not only
helped major players in expanding
their businesses, it is also an effec-
tive tool for small- and medium-
sized enterprises due to low costs
and increased accessibility of
sellers to customers.
In its efforts to increase the
growth and development of the
industry, the federal govern-
ment has recently framed a draft
e-commerce policy aimed at
achieving higher export growth
through enhanced activities from
e-commerce platforms, promoting
small e-businesses and creating
employment opportunities.
The main goal of the policy is to
augment the e-commerce indus-
try’s growth to make it one of the
key drivers of Pakistan’s economy.
Though data shows a steady
rise in digital transactions and the
number of registered vendors, the
country’s successful e-commerce
entrepreneurs believe that Paki-
stan can learn much from China
to further boost the industry,
which is still in its infancy, as the
latter has an immense knowledge
base, experience and advanced
technology in this field.
In a conversation with the Xin-
hua News Agency, Adam Dawood,
head of Yayvo, one of Pakistan’s
largest online retailers, said that
China is the world’s biggest e-
commerce market with annual
online sales worth hundreds of
billions of dollars.
As a neighboring country,
China is eyeing the huge untapped
potential in Pakistan, with Chinese
e-commerce player AliExpress,
part of tech giant Alibaba, recently
acquiring Daraz.
“Apart from investment in Paki-
stan, China has such a big market
for products that we could increase
our product assortment over- Entrepreneurs eye
to augment booming
E
Pakistan
prom
Inset: Crowds throng the street at Gunpat
Road market in Lahore, Pakistan in August.
Photo: VCG
Pakistani farmers gather at a fruit market to
sell watermelons in Lahore. File photo: VCG