Prime Minister Imran Khan has inaugurated the E-Commerce Portal to promote and facilitate free lancers and e-business in Pakistan.

Addressing the inauguration ceremony in Islamabad on Monday evening, he announced a zero tax regime for registered free lancers in Pakistan.

The Prime Minister urged the youth to take benefit of government incentivized policies in the IT sector. He said the government is determined to remove all barriers in the way of e-commerce.

Appreciating efforts of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for polio eradication in Pakistan, Imran Khan said he always wanted Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s co-chair Bill Gates to invest in the IT sector of Pakistan and in this regard good news will soon be announced. Imran Khan said the government is working on emergency basis for the promotion of IT sector as Pakistan’s future is linked with it. He said government has started different training and crash courses to educate the youth in e-commerce.

Speaking on the occasion, Prime Minister’s Special Assistant to on E-Commerce Aon Abbas Bappi said the government is making vigorous efforts to take the volume of e-commerce trade from existing four billion dollars to 7.5 billion dollars by the end of this year and nine billion dollars by next year. He said PTI government is the first one, which announced the first ever e-commerce policy of the country that helped increase internet users to 110 million. He said there are one million active free lancers in Pakistan, comprising a large component of female users.

Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin said Pakistan’s IT sector grew by 47 percent last year and expected growth this year is 75 percent, which shows government’s IT friendly policies.

Source: Radio Pakistan