DEPTH
market mechanism as well as facilitate
independence and opening-up.
More support is needed to strengthen
industry collaboration and technologi-
cal cooperation between upstream and
downstream enterprises, in a bid to
establish strategic industrial chains with
more resilience, innovation and higher
added value.
The world’s largest manufacturer and
the only country owning all industrial
categories worldwide reported upbeat
data in July, although downward pressure
remains.
The profits of China’s major industrial
firms rose 2.6 percent year on year in July,following the 3.1-percent decline in June,
data from the National Bureau of Statis-
tics (NBS) showed Tuesday.
Petrochemicals, electrical machinery
and automobiles are key industries push-
ing the growth rate of industrial profits
in July, said NBS senior statistician Zhu
Hong.
“Innovation capability is the core for
industrial development to move up to the
middle- and high-end of the global value
chain and increase added value,” said Xu,
noting the importance of both policy sup-
port and researchers’ enthusiasm.
The State Council, or China’s cabinet,
on Tuesday announced a guideline outlin-ing 20 measures to tap China’s consump-
tion potential and better meet the demand
of Chinese consumers.
The measures included lifting restric-
tions on car purchases, applying new
technologies to promote the circulation of
products, improving the infrastructure of
commercial streets and accelerating the
development of chain convenience stores,
as well as fiscal and financial policies to
expand consumption.
While China’s domestic market has
seen stable expansion, the country still
faces many challenges in terms of lack
of innovation for traditional retailers and
inadequate supply of commodities andservices, the State Council said.
“Based on the previous policies to
improve the consumption system and
mechanism, the reform and innova-
tion measures are bolder steps covering
a wider range, which are conducive to
further optimizing the effective supply in
circulation,” said Guan Lixin, a researcher
with the Chinese Academy of Internation-
al Trade and Economic Cooperation.Xinhua – Global TimesPage Editor:
[email protected]night,” Dawood said, adding that
there is a lot of learning required
in terms of product-market fit, leg-
islation, and route to market that
would help Pakistan increase not
just the online shopping base, but
also the internet penetration rate.
Talking about the challenges
the e-commerce industry is facing,
Dawood said that Pakistan needs
to focus on optimizing overall
service delivery and customer
experience aspects.
“Our logistics and payments
systems need to evolve to be better
suited; it behooves the government
to pass legislations and cooper-
ate and collaborate with regional
players including China to further
support and actively promote the
digital businesses.”
Pakistan needs to encourageChinese enterprises to explore
opportunities in the Pakistani e-
commerce industry and join with
local start-ups for new business
ventures, said Shehryar Hydri,
secretary general of the Pakistan
Software Houses Association, a
trade body promoting and develop-
ing software and services industry
in Pakistan.“We need to partner with
Chinese producers and help them
open hubs in Pakistan for onward
export to regional markets,” said
Hydri, adding that something that
has been ignored so far is the op-
portunity to sell back to China and
discover new niches through these
online platforms.
“As Chinese company AliEx-
press already on-boards more local
vendors to sell products locally
as well as to other countries, [the]
Pakistani e-commerce ecosystem
will get mature and sellers will be
able to tap new markets,” Hydri
said.
Brakaan Saeed, chief execu-
tive officer at Vizteck Solutions, a
leading Islamabad-based soft-
ware company, said most of the
country’s e-commerce industry is
still based on a cash-on-delivery
system and that is about 90
percent.
People are reluctant to pay
through online payment meth-
ods as there is a huge trust defi-
cit between buyers and sellers
which is hindering the growth
of e-commerce in Pakistan, he
noted.
“China can help bridge this
gap by establishing payment
model called escrow in Pakistan
as adopted by various e-com-
merce companies in China.”
Saeed said.
Earlier this year, in an effort
to further develop mobile pay-
ment modes and digital finan-
cial services in the country, Telenor
Microfinance Bank, Valyou, and
Telenor’s Easypaisa in collabora-
tion with Chinese company Alipay,
the world’s largest mobile payment
platform, have jointly launched
a blockchain-based international
remittance service in Pakistan.Xinhua – Global TimesChinese cooperation
g e-commerce market
Chi i
’s digital
mise