What happened:
In an effort to increase the participation of women entrepreneurs in the trade of goods and services the Ministry of commerce will be building a national database of these entrepreneurs. The Ministry of commerce announced this on Friday, the 27th of November. Commerce Secretary Muhammad Sualeh Ahmad Faruqui made this suggestion while chairing the second meeting of consultative committee of the Women Economic Empowerment (WEE). Secretary Faruqi, in this virtual meeting, highlighted the importance of empowering women to participate in the trade of good and services so that they may be economically empowered as well. The committee will work in sub groups to come up with recommendations, according to their field of expertise, and submit those to the Ministry of Commerce. Secretary Faruqi also emphasised the necessity of doing dedicated work on policy issues to ensure effective engagement with women entrepreneurs as key stakeholders. He proposed drafting an action matrix on the basis of stakeholders’ input mentioning timelines for different kinds of actions based on their nature in sequential and parallel manner. “This will cover creation of a national database of women entrepreneurs, business facilitation, ease of doing business, training and access to finance”, he said. The e-commerce implementation strategy has set specific targets for the building of a portal for one window facilitation for related matters and to promote public awareness for all relevant stakeholders. The portal will provide simplified, translated information about regulations and enhance knowledge and understanding about e-commerce, aware the public about consumer protection and facilitate implementation of nine pillars of e-commerce policy. It will mainstream women in the economic activities. The WEE also aims to promote women-led businesses on international forums through government and private platforms.
The background:
The meeting was also attended, via zoom, by e-commerce marketplaces, Facebook, the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry representatives and women chambers, leading fashion designers, the State Bank of Pakistan, Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (Islamabad) and Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority. The representatives from the Pakistan-Regional Economic Integration Activity, USAID and the Asian Development Bank also attended the moot and briefed the house about international best practices on women small and medium enterprises definition and e-commerce portal, respectively.