The Minister made these remarks during a meeting with Chairman and Founder of Alibaba Group, Jack Ma on the sidelines of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) E-Commerce Week 2017, says a press release received here on Wednesday from Geneva.
Anusha highlighted the infrastructure in Pakistan that had been put in place in IT and Telecom sector and informed Jack Ma on recent developments in this regard which has connected more than 40 million people through mobile broadband in the last two years. She also highlighted several initiatives being undertaken for ICT penetration in the country such as "ICT for Girls" program.
She underscored the importance of training medium and small businesses (MSMEs) to come online, market their products and fully benefit from the potential of E-Commerce. Jack Ma appreciated the developments in Pakistan in the IT and Telecom sector. Whilst appreciating the proposal he agreed to look favourably into it. Jack Ma also indicated his desire to visit Pakistan this year and to meet the beneficiary girls of ICT for Girls program.
The Minister participated in the "Friends of E-Commerce for Development - (FED)" ministerial meeting, which is an initiative of Pakistan along with several other developing country members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) to provide impetus to discussion on E-Commerce. The Minister also attended the launch of online platform of the UNCTAD's initiative "eTrade for All", which is a tool to facilitate implementation of E-Commerce initiatives in developing countries.