Pakistan-China business body recommends digitization of small enterprises for inclusive growth

Members of Pakistan-China Joint Chamber of Commerce and Industry pose for a photo on April 22, 2022. (@PCJCCI/Twitter)

• The joint chamber of commerce seeks a new trade policy that encourages market competition
• The chamber’s top officials emphasize entrepreneurship and innovation for greater productivity

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan-China Joint Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Sunday recommended digitization of small and medium enterprises to ensure inclusive growth, saying it was such businesses that drove innovation and led to higher exports and foreign exchange earnings.
Pakistan is currently facing a major current account deficit that has weakened its currency and depleted forex reserves. The country is in dire need of external finances and seeks the resumption of a $6 billion loan program which was approved by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 2019.
“The small shopkeeper, the vender, the unskilled laborer contains the largest number of small and medium enterprises and if we make this sector boom we will have a more egalitarian development,” the chamber’s president, Wang Zihai, was quoted as saying by the Associated Press of Pakistan news agency while addressing an online consultation session.
He added it was important for Pakistan to revisit its trade policy to ensure greater competition.
“We have to redesign our trade policy, centered to encourage competition, create opportunities and provide an enabling environment for domestic markets to flourish in an innovative and exciting new approach,” he continued.
The chamber’s senior vice president, Ehsan Chaudhry, said the domestic markets and small industries in Pakistan primarily included retail and wholesale traders, restaurants and hotels, construction, transport, storage and communication, financial and real estate and personal services.
“We do not need to reinvent the wheel,” he maintained. “It is only through competition with foreign markets and services that our domestic markets will improve and benefit through knowledge spillovers, learning by doing and exposure to new technologies and management systems.”
Chaudhry advocated transformation of Pakistani cities into dynamic commercial hubs which, depending on their potential, could be turned into tourist destinations or regional headquarters for multinational companies.
Discussing the possibility of providing an enabling economic environment, he noted that most international brands and business success stories had “humble beginnings.”
The participants of the session agreed that Pakistani market could become more productive through entrepreneurship and innovation, adding such business-friendly policies would also lead to the overall economic welfare of the country.