PM Imran Khan and Daraz Group CEO meet to discuss how eCommerce can help grow Pakistan’s economy

November 25th, Karachi: Yesterday in Islamabad, Prime Minister Imran Khan along with the Minister of Finance, Shaukat Tarin, met with Daraz Group’s CEO, Bjarke Mikkelsen, and Daraz Pakistan Managing Director, Ehsan Saya, to discuss the vital role e-commerce can play to increase employment and accelerate economic growth for the country.

Digitalization is a key agenda of the Government and yesterday’s discussion focused on how the Government and e-commerce businesses can work together to help fuel the country’s economic growth and create millions of jobs.

Daraz helps SMEs grow their businesses by providing them with technology, training, and education to access to a large and engaged online customer base. As part of the discussion, Daraz shared their vision to grow the number of active and e-commerce educated SMEs on their platform to 300,000 within the next two years and create a total of one million jobs through its marketplace model, which will contribute to the premier’s agenda of creating 10 million jobs.

As Pakistan’s economy is heavily dependent on small businesses, both parties discussed how e-commerce can support small businesses in rural areas and provide them access to grow their business across the entire country.

Mr Mikkelsen said it was an honour to meet with the Prime Minister and Minister of Finance to discuss how Daraz can work in partnership with the Government.

“As a company, our purpose is to uplift the communities where we operate in, and we believe that through digitalization, we can play a significant role to support the economic growth of the country. We look forward to continuing our strong working relationship with the Government to ensure that we can support their ambitions,” said Mr Mikkelsen.

In the meeting, it was also discussed how e-commerce can play a role in managing inflation pressure by providing more direct access between consumers and the producers of goods.

Daraz looks to continue to scale its business in Pakistan and has committed to invest US$150 million over the next two years to support the growth of Pakistan’s digital ecosystem.

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