“Pakistan is going to invite global tech companies including Amazon, eBay and PayPal to start their operations in Pakistan,” Minister of IT and Telecommunication Anusha Rehman said at a conference earlier yesterday.
The minister said that Pakistan is now listed in anti-money laundering body Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) white-list. This means that Pakistan has agreed to FATF’s anti-money laundering and counter-terror financial standards. Pakistan was previously listed FATF’s grey-list, which discouraged technology companies from coming to Pakistan.
Rehman also informed that State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) was working with partners to open up an e-payment gateway in Pakistan.
“The IT ministry will continue supporting and facilitating e-commerce and e-payment gateway in Pakistan,” Rahman had said on Monday while chairing a meeting of the Inter-Ministerial Committee for establishing the e-payment gateway in Pakistan. “For successful establishment of an e-commerce gateway, a comprehensive e-commerce policy, comprising guidelines, rules and regulations along with dispute resolution and remedial mechanism for consumers, is a must.”
Ministry of Commerce is leading the work on the regulatory framework for the e-commerce industry, while Minister of State for Information Technology and State Bank of Pakistan were assisting in the formulation of protocols, Rehman said, adding that this framework will be formulated over the next few weeks.
