Pakistan Digitalisation Updates

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Digitalization is remodeling real economy, financial sector: Reza Baqir

• The SBP governor highlights significant issues and challenges surrounding cybersecurity faced by banks

BR
09 Dec 2021

State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Governor Dr Reza Baqir has said that digitalization is one of the biggest disruptors of this millennium that is remodeling the real economy and the financial sector on a global scale.

The governor made these remarks while delivering a keynote speech at the 13th Public Lecture Series on the theme of ‘Sustainability and Cyber Resilience’ organized by the Islamic Financial Services Board (IFSB), Malaysia on December 8 in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

As per a statement by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), Dr Baqir delivered the keynote speech on ‘Cybersecurity in the Era of Digitalization: Regulatory Perspective’.

Speaking on the occasion, he highlighted significant issues and challenges surrounding cybersecurity faced by banks and enlightened the audience on the policy measures and regulatory initiatives undertaken by SBP in this regard.

He remarked that digitalization is one of the biggest disruptors of this millennium that is remodeling the real economy and the financial sector on a global scale, according to the SBP.

Dr Baqir highlighted numerous business opportunities emerging due to recent trends in digitalization, which would spur growth across the economies.

The governor emphasized that interconnection and complexity of the financial system and the massive adoption of technology have created vulnerabilities, which necessitates the policymakers and regulators to stay vigilant and develop befitting policy measures to address the risks emerging through technological disruptions.

Sharing his thoughts on the policy response against the cybersecurity risks, governor SBP stressed upon developing robust cybersecurity protocols and regulations to improve overall governance regime in financial institutions by making cybersecurity as a boardroom agenda of financial institutions.

He also underscored the need to strengthen operational cyber resilience through promoting a culture of collaboration and coordination amongst the global financial industry to respond to cyber threats in real-time, the statement added.

In his concluding remarks, the governor envisaged that central banks may develop and promote centers for regional cooperation and collaboration on cybersecurity.

Earlier, H.E. Khaled Mohamed Balama Governor Central bank of UAE, welcomed the dignitaries and shed light on the significance of cybersecurity amid technological innovations and increased focus of financial sector on digitalization, particularly after the Covid-19 pandemic.

 

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https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=256513066470556

 

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New era of digital banking begins: SBP

Shahid Iqbal
January 4, 2022


KARACHI: The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has introduced a framework to grant licences for setting up wholly digital banks that will provide all the banking services, from account opening to deposit and lending, through digital means and the customers will not need to visit any branch physically.

“The SBP has set the stage for the dawn of a new era for banking in Pakistan with the introduction of a Licensing and Regulatory Framework for digital banks in line with international best practices,” said the central bank in a statement on Monday.

The framework for digital banks is the latest in a series of recent initiatives by the SBP towards the digitalisation of banking and payment solutions in the country.

Other recent digitalisation initiatives introduced by the SBP, which are gaining traction and have opened new avenues for introducing innovative solutions, include customers’ digital on-boarding, Roshan Digital Account, Raast — instant payment system, electronic money institutions licences, Asaan Mobile Accounts.

The framework mainly aims to enhance financial inclusion through affordable and cost-effective digital financial services and is part of SBP’s efforts to promote digital financial services in Pakistan.

Initially five banks will be awarded licences

It includes guidance regarding licensing requirements, potential sponsors and permissible use-cases during different phases. It also sets an expectation from applicants to have sound digital governance, robust, secure and resilient technology infrastructure, effective data management strategy and practices.

As per the framework, digital banks are required to maintain a principal place of business in Pakistan to house the offices of their management, staff, other support operations and serve as the main hub/ point of contact for various stakeholders including SBP and other regulators.

In line with international best practices and assessment of the overall banking situation in Pakistan, the SBP has decided to initially issue up to five digital banks’ licences, which essentially means that the SBP is looking to attract players with a strong value proposition, a robust technological infrastructure, sufficient financial strength, technical expertise and effective risk management culture.

Applications, in this regard, will be accepted till March 31, 2022 and applicants intending to apply for a digital bank’s licence under this framework may submit their requests along with all the requisite documents at digitalbanksapplications@sbp.org.pk.

The newly issued licensing and regulatory framework provides complete procedure for setting up digital banks as a separate and distinct category in Pakistan. A digital bank is defined as a bank that offers all kinds of financial products and services primarily through digital platforms or electronic channels instead of physical branches.

Under this framework, the SBP may grant two types of digital bank licences, Digital Retail Bank (DRB) or Digital Full Bank (DFB). DRBs will primarily focus on retail customers while DFBs can deal with retail customers as well as business and corporate entities.

The licences for DRBs and DFBs may be obtained for both conventional and Islamic variants. Further, conventional variants of DRBs and DFBs may also offer Islamic banking services through Islamic windows as per existing practice. Setting up digital banks will also require less capital relative to the brick-and-mortar banks currently in existence, encouraging new technology-oriented entrepreneurs to enter this new realm of business.

The minimum capital requirement for DRBs is set at Rs1.5 billion during the pilot phase that will gradually increase to Rs4bn over a transition period of three years. The SBP expects that a few digital banks will be operational this calendar year, and is confident that these will play an important role in an inclusive and efficient expansion of the financial ecosystem in Pakistan.

Published in Dawn, January 4th, 2022

 

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Digitalisation

Around the world, countries have adopted digitalisation in most fields to speed up the process of growth and development. We have already witnessed the benefits of digitalisation through social media applications that have helped connect people without physical contact. Even e-businesses have changed the marketplace and economics.

Pakistan should also consider the digitisation of the economy on a larger scale through technology as it will lower the costs of storing, sharing and analysing data and create a link between consumers and suppliers without middlemen.

Digitalisation will help businesses within Pakistan to expand in the international market. Businesses can analyse economic trends more effectively and help consumers to make better choices. It will be more time-friendly because the overall process is much faster. Even the government can benefit through e-governance and increase political participation through e-voting.

The digitalisation of industrial sectors will help Pakistan’s economy. The use of accounting software, maintenance of computerised records, automation, and artificial intelligence can increase the productivity and efficiency of industrial sectors. Transactions through e-banking and digital payments will be easily documented and draw more taxpayers.

The economy can be strengthened by greater e-commerce opportunities as it will generate more revenue. Digital technologies can also promote Pakistan’s agricultural sector. Given that most people now have access to mobile phones, an agriculture information portal can be set up. It will inform agriculturists about price, weather, water quality, and supply data from agricultural markets. Pakistan’s administrative system is still chained with an old manual system.

People have to travel long distances and wait for hours in queues just to get documents such as domiciles, driving licences, etc. The government should consider transitioning towards digitalisation as it will overcome several hurdles and ensure smooth procedure, which will significantly benefit the country...

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China helps 35 Pakistani students to become e-commerce owners​

Students were also taught Chinese language along with ways to access world’s biggest market with minimum investment

News Desk
November 22, 2022

PHOTO: EXPRESS

With the mutual cooperation of Islamabad and Beijing, a total of 35 Pakistani students have been able to become owners of e-commerce companies in the country.

According to Express News, in order to inculcate the immaculate Chinese business expertise amongst the Pakistani students, a number of courses regarding e-commerce were offered to them.

With the help of Hunan Chemical, Vocational and Technical College, the first course was offered at Dawood University of Engineering and Technology (DUET). As a result of which, 35 Pakistani students learned e-commerce business and became owners of companies on the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) e-commerce platform.

The students were also taught the Chinese language along with ways to access the Chinese market with minimum investment.

DUET Vice-Chairman Dr Faizullah Abbasi said with the help of Lanzhou University,, the second round of courses is about to be introduced soon in order to enhance the BRI project between Pakistan and China.

“We are working with the education department of Gansu province and Lanzhou University in order to introduce the online BRI e-commerce classes,” he added.

The VC also said that the initiative will help in eliminating unemployment in Pakistan as well as opening up new foreign employment opportunities for students.
He further added that it will also enhance ties between the educational institutions of both nations.

On this occasion, the founder of EduCast Abdullah Butt said that in the next two years, a total of 10,000 Pakistani students will be given e-commerce training in the country.

Sindh Technical Board Chairman Dr Masroor Sheikh said that a total of three e-commerce courses are being offered and the duration of the courses is three months each. The module of the classes is to attend 32 hours of online and 32 hours of physical classes in order to complete the course.

He further added that students from all over Pakistan can get themselves enrolled in this programme after completing matriculation. The students will not only be taught the Chinese language and culture but also the pertinent Chinese laws and other business opportunities.

 

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Race to digital banking – final round​

BR Research
November 23, 2022

The issuance of the digital banking licenses is in its final round. There are four stages in the process; three of which are complete. The last one is in the process now. The SBP has decided to issue five licenses at this point for which the final decision may be expected in December.

In the first two stages, applications were submitted and the SBP asked specific questions to the short-listed applicants and allowed them to present their case to the SBP team. The third stage was the final assessment. Since the three steps are done, now the final decision will be taken by the SBP executive committee which has twelve members including Governor, Deputy Governors, and executive directors.

Last month, at the time when the process was in its second stage, this space argued that the SBP should issue licenses to certain categories. For details read “Race to the digital banking license” published on 3rd October 2022. There are five types of applicants.


One: existing commercial banks, two: already operating fintech, third are telcos operating in the financial services, fourth are the international banks, and the last category is international fintech. This space argued to exclude the first two and concentrate on the last three.

In addition to that, the SBP should give higher weight to the companies that are technologically agile and are geared to bring new technology into the country. Further, the SBP should give higher weightage to those who have plans to take banking to the underserved population. Finally, foreign players should be encouraged on the premise of bringing FDI home.

Another angle that the SBP must explore is to look at existing banks and fintech which are bullish on digitization but have not applied for the license. Why did Meezan and other banks who are heavily investing in the digital banking infrastructure and human resource not apply? What was the rationale behind fintech like Keenu, NayaPay and Haball not applying for this license? Possibly, they opted out as they did not want to get trapped in too many regulations which could hinder their mushrooming growth. At the same time, the capital required to be deployed in digital banking is higher and the cashflows for these potential digital banks may remain tight in the initial 5-7 years.

SBP should look at the applicants and examine the different motivations for their submission. First, they should have patient capital. For that commercial banks are the best. But they don’t have any value addition through this license, as they can do any kind of digital banking under the existing license.

That makes telcos, international banks and international fintech viable options. Here SBP must look at the seriousness of the sponsors and their commitment to the Pakistani market. The commitment of telcos to financial inclusion can be gauged from the fact that one player has 38 million accounts and is Pakistan’s largest payment processor. Telcos have also sustained and grown their business during Covid where IBFT charges were eliminated and since then, have continued to digitize currency. These are nimble, tech native, and have strong financial backing. On seriousness of sponsors, there is news about one telco player leaving Pakistan. SBP could be reluctant to issue a license to that party, as there is no information on the potential new sponsor.

SBP is also doing its due diligence and investigation on the foreign players operating in other markets. SBP is in touch with the regulators of other countries where these players are operating. This would give SBP a good idea about these entities. And SBP should see the track record of these foreign investors’ investment commitments in other markets to gauge how much FDI these applicants may bring into Pakistan.

At the same time, SBP should evaluate local fintech and banks applying and try to gauge the motivation and drawbacks of these players and see how effectively they have utilized existing PSO/PSP, EMI and NBFC licenses. SBP should exercise caution with applicants who have not effectively demonstrated traction and good governance and pivoting from license to license too quickly.

In essence, while the SBP encourages innovation and fresh blood, it also needs to weigh the seriousness of sponsors, strength of their management and synergies the licensees must bring especially to the cause of digitizing the economy. This can be achieved if the successful licensees exhibit agility, focus, collaboration, and financial prudence. And a whole lot of patience.

 

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Pakistan ‘treading path’ to launching its own digital currency: SBP​

• Central bank governor Jameel Ahmed weighing cost and benefits of this venture

BR Web Desk
November 24, 2022

Following in the footsteps of other central banks, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) is also doing its due diligence on launching its own digital currency, known as the Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), and is undertaking the cost and benefit analysis of this venture.

SBP Governor Jameel Ahmed shared the development while addressing participants at the '1st Pakistan Fintech Forum 2022' held at a local hotel on Wednesday.

“We have examined almost all the jurisdictions that are either experimenting or have issued CBDCs in their respective jurisdictions. However, we will tread this path very carefully, especially with regard to design choices and use case analysis,” he said.

CBDCs are digital tokens, similar to cryptocurrency, and are the digital form of a country's fiat currency. However, unlike cryptos, a CBDC is issued and regulated by a nation's monetary authority or central bank.

According to the Atlantic Council, a US-based think tank, over 105 countries, representing over 95% of global GDP, are exploring a CBDC. Meanwhile, 50 countries are already in an advanced phase of exploration (development, pilot, or launch). Ten countries have fully launched a digital currency, with China’s pilot set to expand in 2023, shared the think tank.

Meanwhile, the SBP chief shared plans to also launch a Quick Response (QR) Code-based Person-to-Merchant (P2M) system by next year to enable merchants and small businesses to receive instant payments from their customers.

Ahmed said that despite boasting one of the youngest countries in the world, only 82 million out of an estimated 132 million adults have a bank account in Pakistan. "This translates into an account penetration rate of 62%, which is one of the lowest in the world," he informed.

The SBP chief said that the central bank is also working on the development of a technical sandbox to test and standardize the Application Programmable Interfaces for various use cases. He also assured the industry that SBP will expedite the process so that the applicants to the Sandbox get a chance to test their use cases.

He said the SBP is also working with service providers towards improving the overall customer journey and user experience so that citizens of Pakistan have easy, convenient and low-cost access to financial services.

 

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ISLAMABAD: IT and Telecommunication Minister Syed Aminul Haque on Wednesday stopped short of criticising the finance ministry and said that the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) and the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) needed to understand the issues faced by the IT & telecom sector.

“Digital growth is not only essential for the overall strengthening of the economy but one of the basic conditions for modernisation of the governance system,” he added.

Addressing the launch of the “Smartphone For All” initiative in collaboration with GSMA and a local company KistPay, the minister responded to repeated criticism by all the stakeholders that Pakistan has the highest taxes on mobile calls, internet and mobile sets in the world, while the return on investments was among the lowest.

The event marked the sale of mobile phones at easy installments for low-income people under the initiative.

Urges regulators to resolve issues of IT sector

Under the scheme, mobile phones valued between Rs10,000 to Rs100,000 can be purchased in 3 to 12-month installments with a 20-30 per cent down payment.

The minister lauded Kistpay for the launch of the scheme and said that the scheme will help spread smartphone usage that will eventually encourage people to become small entrepreneurs and enter e-commerce businesses.

He said that the prerequisite of this initiative is to have local smartphone manufacturing and there are currently 29 such companies assembling mobile sets in Pakistan.

The minister said 28 projects worth Rs65 billion had been launched by the Universal Service Fund (USF) to give access to telephony, broadband and internet across the country compared to only 4 projects that were launched up to four years ago.

“These schemes are connecting people of remote and underdeveloped areas,” he said, adding that after initiating the local smartphone manufacturing, Pakistan was now striving to move to the next phase which is global exposure.

“Tiktok is set to open its office in Pakistan next week, a team of Facebook is also due this month for discussions over the same issue and talks with Google are scheduled to be held next month to award 15,000 scholarships to youngsters,” Mr Haque added.

Speakers at the event stressed that Pakistan needed mechanisms like the “credit bureau” to prevent defaults over the sale of mobile sets on the installment basis. They also noted that up to 50pc mobile sets used in the country were “feature phones”.

GSMA Asia Pacific Chief Julian Gorman said that smartphone prevalence in Pakistan was far below the Asia Pacific region and it has to be a key priority so that low- and middle-income consumers can participate in the digital economy.

Mr Gorman suggested the mobile industry, financial institutions, policymakers and regulators needed to adopt a collaborative approach to enhance smartphone usage in Pakistan.

PTA chairman Amir Azeem Bajwa, CEO Telenor Irfan Wahab, CEO Ufone Hatem Bamatraf, CCO Jazz Asif Aziz and others highlighted that Pakistan needed to encourage investments in IT & telecom sector through conducive policies.

Published in Dawn, November 24th, 2022

 

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Smart, innovative digital financial services: SBP governor explains how banks can better serve business sector​

Recorder

KARACHI: Jameel Ahmed, Governor of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has said that banking system can better serve business sector activities by offering smart and innovative digital financial services.

While addressing at a conference titled “Role of the Banking Sector in Business and Economic Growth of Pakistan”, the governor reiterated SBP’s resolve to foster a dynamic and stable banking system; geared towards economic welfare of the society.

National Institute of Banking and Finance (NIBAF) in collaboration with the Institute of Cost and Management Accountants of Pakistan (ICMA Pakistan) conducted a conference on “Role of the Banking Sector in Business and Economic Growth of Pakistan” in Karachi, here on Friday.

This full day event focused on the emerging challenges, opportunities and modes of innovation for banking sector in Pakistan. The event featured keynote addresses and high-level policy deliberations for the way forward in banking and digital financial services spectrum. The panelists, speakers and attendees included key industry market movers, academicians, innovators and banking sector delegates.

The governor SBP in his speech elaborated that banking sector in Pakistan continues to serve the needs of the economy and make progress on key public policy objectives of financial inclusion, innovation and financing to priority sectors, given the recent challenging global and domestic economic environment.

He added that, the banks must ensure that financial innovation is customer centric, which results in faster, safer and cheaper access to financial services.

The governor remarked that the transformation of banking system from conventional to Shariah compliant mode in the light of decision of Shariah court and the growth in digital technologies offer a huge opportunity for the growth of the banking.

He reaffirmed the assiduous support being offered by SBP in the advancement of digital transformation and unwavering support for Islamic banking transformation in the financial industry.

The governor SBP stressed upon the need for banks to leverage innovative financial solutions in order to achieve a higher level of financial inclusion especially for largely excluded segments; such as women, small businesses and agriculture. He encouraged banks to focus on developing and designing products with the consumers’ interests in mind.

During the conference, Shehzad Ahmed Malik, President ICMA expressed that a major challenge for banks across the globe was adapting to innovation.

He suggested that for local commercial banks, especially, it is high time that they should make it a priority to adopt new technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Chatbots which can offer them revolutionary solutions and enable them to compete with the digital banks that would be gradually entering into the banking arena in Pakistan.

The conference was attended by senior management of the central bank, banking community and members of ICMA.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022

 

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Chinese company to invest $100m in digital payments sector.​

December 7, 2022



LAHORE: Opay, a Chinese company present in various countries including Nigeria, plans to invest $100 million in Pakistan’s digital payments sector by increasing points of sale (POS) from 10,000 to 100,000, its country president told Dawn on Tuesday.

It also plans to buy a microfinance bank and has applied for the requisite licence, Ali Mubashir Kazmi said. “Opay entered Pakistan with an initial investment of $4m but now plans to invest up to $100m,” Mr Kazmi said. As for points of sale, the company would attain the 20,000 POS target in the first phase, he said.

Opay fintech raised $400m from international investors led by Japan’s SoftBank, and the company is valued at $2 billion. The investment was aimed at capturing emerging markets like Pakistan.

With a changing financial landscape amid technological development, fintech and digital banks in Pakistan are working to tap the immense potential in a large unbanked market.

“Opay has a long-term view on Pakistan. There is a great opportunity in the financial sector development, and we are geared to play our role. Opay has digital expertise and plans to penetrate the unbanked segment. The commercial view is to bring an investment of $100m into Pakistan as [foreign direct investment],” he said.

Opay Pakistan is already operating with over 200 employees and now plans to increase the number significantly. It is providing financial services as a third party and has already installed over 10,000 POS. Its parent has already invested $4m in POS machines and related infrastructure and is now waiting for a licence from the State Bank of Pakistan.

 

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SBP issues NOCs to five applicants for establishing digital bank​

• Central bank expects after commencement of operations, digital banks will promote financial inclusion by providing affordable/cost effective digital financial services to unserved and underserved segments

The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Friday said that it has issued no-objection certificates (NOC) to five applicants for establishing digital banks in the country.

The following are the ones issued the NOC:

• I) Easy Paisa DB (Telenor Pakistan B.V & Ali Pay Holding Ltd.),
• II) Hugo Bank (Getz Bros & Co., Atlas Consolidated Pte. Ltd. and M & P Pakistan Pvt. Ltd.);
• III) KT Bank (Kuda Technologies Ltd., Fatima Fertilizer Ltd. and City School Pvt. Ltd.);
• IV) Mashreq Bank (Mashreq Bank UAE); and
• V) Raqami (Kuwait Investment Authority through – PKIC and Enertech Holding Co.)

In January 2022, the SBP introduced a licensing and regulatory framework for digital banks.

“The Framework was the first step towards introducing full-fledged digital banks in Pakistan. The digital banks are expected to provide all the banking services through digital means without any need for their customers to visit the bank branches physically,” said the SBP.

In response to SBP’s Licensing and Regulatory Framework for digital banks, the central bank received twenty (20) applications from a diverse range of interested players such as commercial banks, microfinance banks, electronic money institutions and Fintech firms by March 31, 2022.

“Further, a number of foreign players including venture capital firms already operating in the digital banking space also expressed their interest to venture into Pakistani market directly or in collaboration with local partners. The five (05) applicants were selected after a thorough and rigorous assessment process as per the requirements of the Framework.

“Applicants were assessed on various parameters that included fitness and propriety, experience and financial strength; business plan; implementation plan; funding and capital plan; IT and cybersecurity strategy and outsourcing arrangements, etc. Further, all the applicants were given the opportunity to present their business case to SBP.

“Going forward, each of these five applicants will incorporate a public limited company with the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan. Afterwards, they will approach SBP for In-Principle Approval for demonstrating operational readiness and for commencement of operations under the pilot phase. Subsequently, they will commercially launch their operations after obtaining SBP’s approval.”

The SBP said it expects that after commencement of their operations, these digital banks will promote financial inclusion by providing affordable/cost effective digital financial services including credit access to unserved and underserved segments of the society.

 

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WB board to consider $78m ‘digital economy’ project next month​

Tahir Amin | Tahir Amin

ISLAMABAD: The World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors will consider “Pakistan: Digital Economy Enhancement Project” worth $78 million next month. The project aims at enhancing the government’s capacity for digitally-enabled public services delivery for citizens and businesses.

The project documents revealed a holistic approach to digital government services is largely missed. Despite the policy instruments available at the federal and provincial levels, the responsible institutions lack implementation support causing missed opportunities across various subsectors.

Despite the presence of relatively strong national ID and payment systems the lack of interoperability frameworks and mechanisms has limited the capacity of the government (as well as non-government actors) to exchange data securely and seamlessly.


The proposed outcome indicators for the project are transactions on the National Data Exchange Layer (Number), unique users on the National Citizen Services Portal (of which are female initiated) (Number and percentage), Registration, Licenses, Certificates and Other (RLCOs) transaction processed on the Pakistan Business Portal (of which processed for female-led small and medium enterprises) (Number and percentage) and users satisfied with services offered by the National Citizen Services Portal (percentage).

The project documents revealed Pakistan has experienced frequent macroeconomic crises due to a growth model based on private and government consumption, with productivity-enhancing investment and exports contributing relatively limited gains. Growth of per capita gross domestic product (GDP) has been low, averaging under two percent in the last two decades. Recent unprecedented floods are likely to have serious impacts on poverty, human development outcomes and economic growth.

It further noted that Pakistan has started its digital transformation. Internet access, particularly mobile, and demand for digital services have been increasing, notably during the pandemic. However, Pakistan lags on most digital development rankings relative to regional comparators, notably on digital infrastructure (connectivity), digital government and the enabling environment for the digital economy.

Pakistan demonstrated recent bright spots in digital government services - such as the successful use of digital technologies to rapidly deploy the Emergency Cash Program to mitigate the socioeconomic effects of the pandemic, demonstrating the power of the national identity (ID) system managed by NADRA and socioeconomic data in the National Socio-Economic Registry (NSER). Pakistan’s Instant payment system (RAAST) also offers new possibilities for digital government-to-persons payments.

Furthermore, nearly four million citizens have been using the Pakistan Citizen’s Portal, a smartphone application that promotes a citizen-centric participatory governance and serves as a nationwide grievance redressal system. These initiatives are demonstrating the potential of offering broader digital government and private services. However, a holistic approach to digital government services is largely missed.

The policy and regulatory environment in Pakistan require improvement in the form of revisions, implementation support and better coordination between the regional and federal governments. The state governments’ digital policies hinge on four key points including improving connectivity, digital government services, literacy, and economy. In support of specific sectoral needs such as cloud computing and right of way requirements of the telecom operators, the federal government has approved Pakistan Cloud First Policy (2022) and Public and Private Right of Way Policy Directive (2020).

A data protection bill has been drafted and issued for initial consultations, but further work is needed to align the bill with global best practices and to ensure that the domestic data economy is not unduly restricted. However, despite the policy instruments available at the federal and provincial levels, the responsible institutions lack implementation support causing missed opportunities across various subsectors.

Despite an efficient regulator and an open licensing regime, the country is facing many forms of digital divides—in terms of access to connectivity, economic opportunities and digital skills.

There are 194 million cellular mobile subscribers and 124 million internet users. However, the vast majority relies on 3G/4G connections for using the internet and fixed broadband penetration is only at about two per cent of households, limiting data-intensive business and service delivery opportunities.

Investments in fixed-line broadband are expected to continue at a slow pace only in affluent localities, which will further exacerbate geographic inequalities. Infrastructure sharing is limited, which results in higher capital and operating costs, further limiting network expansion. Foreign direct investment in the sector—which for nearly two decades was one of the bright spots in the economy—has also declined in the previous four years.

Overlapping jurisdictions and disparate planning requirements at various levels of government related to right-of-way (RoW) permissions have also constrained and increased the cost of deployment of fixed broadband networks. Reforms for improving the policy and regulatory environment, as well as improving the capacity of key institutions in implementation of policies particularly for processing permissions for the RoW are much needed.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023

 

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The digital housing and population #census will start from today across Pakistan and will continue till March 3.

As per details, the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) said that in the digital housing and population census citizens will register their family and home details themselves only through registered mobile.

It will be the first time in Pakistan’s history that paper and pen will not be used in the census, the statistics agency and trained staff will feed data into tablets.

 

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Pakistan has potential to revolutionize its online business with Chinese assistance​

February 21, 2023



ISLAMABAD– Pakistan can bring a revolution in online business with the help of Chinese companies already working in the country. “Ten legal fintech companies are working in Pakistan. Four of them are Chinese companies,” Dr Tahir Mumtaz Awan, head of the China Study Centre (CSC) at Comsats University, . He said that three Chinese companies including Seed Creed Financial Services, Micro Creed Financial Services Limited and Hammra Financial Services Limited are active in the country.

“I am sure that many people may not know about these Chinese fintech companies which are already operating in Pakistan,” said Dr Tahir. He added that those companies could also connect the Pakistani fintech industry with WeChat and Alipay. He said that WeChat has already revolutionised online business in China. Users can buy and sell their daily items online through WeChat.

The second option is Alipay but it is for the international community. Transfers through WeChat are preferred in daily life. “Whenever I go to China I never take cash or carry a card with me. However, I always carry a power bank with me because I have to keep my phone charged and all the money is being transferred through the phone. WeChat is one of the strong financial systems,” said Dr Tahir.

He said that Chinese fintech companies are already working with Pakistan. “It is just needed to synchronise these brands with the fintech industry of Pakistan and the state-run financial institutions,” he added. He said that any Pakistani fintech company such as UBL Omni, Jazz Cash and EasyPaisa etc could be developed on the pattern of WeChat.

“Currently, local fintech companies are moving in the opposite direction of international fintech firms. We need to coordinate and make it a unique and common platform, which is accessible to everyone.

The Federal Board of Revenue is striving to strengthen the fintech industry,” he said. Dr Tahir said that Pakistan has a good 4G system and it is also moving towards 5G. “We need to make our network capable of new technology. It would be a need analysis,” he added.

He said that human resources should be developed in Pakistan. Pakistani youths could be sent to China for training. Likewise, Chinese trainers could be also invited to Pakistan to train people, he added.

“This is high time to improve the skills of people. People have already the latest mobile phones, local machines and latest equipment so they just need to improve their skills,” said Dr Tahir. According to the data provided by WeChat management to WealthPK, the monthly deals of the firm reached 1.309 billion, registering an increase of 3.7%.

 

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First digital census kicks off across KP​

Bureau Report
March 2, 2023

PESHAWAR: The first digital census began in the provincial capital and other districts of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Wednesday.

Caretaker Chief Minister Mohammad Azam Khan launched the digital census, which is the 7th national census in the country.

A statement issued here said a ceremony to this effect was held at the Chief Minister’s House, which was also attended by officials of Pakistan Bureau of Statistics.

Azam Khan kicked off the census by writing enumeration numbers at the gate of the Chief Minister’s House.

On the occasion, he said the census was of vital importance with regard to comprehensive planning for national development. He said equitable distribution of resources as well as development strategies were planned on the basis of statistics obtained through census.

He said census indicated increasing ratio of population and distribution of urban and rural population in addition to determining important socioeconomic factors in the society.

The caretaker CM said digital census was being conducted for the first time in the history of Pakistan in which modern technology was being used as opposed to the traditional method of census. He said under the digital census mechanism, citizens had been provided the facility of self-registration.

Azam Khan remarked that it was the national obligation of every citizen to ensure accurate data entry of his family members during the census exercise. He appealed to the public to fully cooperate with the census teams to make it a success.

The digital census was also launched in Bannu, Lakki Marwat, Abbottabad, Charsadda, Bajaur and other districts of the province.