Islamabad :A two day’s virtual Workshop on “Women Economic Empowerment through the National E-commerce Policy” was held on March, 17-18th 2021 by the Consultative Committee on Women Economic Empowerment(WEE) which was formed by the Ministry of Commerce under the National Ecommerce Council. The workshop was addressed by the Secretary Commerce. A large number of participants from the public sector including SBP, FBR, SMEDA, TDAP and women from private sector representing different chambers, sectors and regions participated in the workshop.

The purpose of the workshop was to work on the gender mainstreaming in policy framework keeping in view the nine pillars of the e-commerce policy. Valuable presentation and suggestions were made by the public sector representatives on gender equality.

Some of the recommendations made by the forum included establishment of focal points in key organisations such as TDAP, SNIEDA, P@SHA, SBP.Need to add synergy in all trainings for women entrepreneurs was also highlighted. Development of e-Commerce portal having all information related to rules and regulations in simple language was also considered an important initiative.         Revision of e-commerce curriculum, access to finance and logistics for ecommerce were discussed in detail. Connectivity through good quality internet services in remote and rural areas came out as a priority issue. Women entrepreneurs highlighted the need of developing a separate package as they have been severly affected by covid-19.
In his concluding remarks the Secretary Ministry of Commerce thanked Women Economic Empowerment subcommittee (WEE) of the NeCC for valuable input and suggestions. Secretary Commerce also thanked International development partners and all the public sector organisations for sharing their gender mainstreaming programmes.The recommendations will be presented to the next National Ecommerce Council(NeCC) meeting.