KARACHI: A senior member of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government, which has been chasing PayPal Holdings Inc to start Pakistan operations, said the country was still in talks with the worldwide payments processor and “hopeful” it would launch services soon in the South Asian nation of 208 million.
As of this year, PayPal operates in about 200 markets and has 277 million registered accounts, allowing customers to send, receive, and hold funds in 25 currencies. Around 200,000 freelancers and over 7,000 registered small and medium enterprises (SMEs) would benefit if PayPal entered the Pakistani market.
The online payment industry is pegged to grow ten-fold to $500 billion by 2020, but last week, Senator Mian Mohammad Ateeq Shaikh told the Senate Standing Committee on Information and Technology that PayPal was afraid to enter Pakistan in the absence of laws to protect the company’s interests.
“The issue is under consideration, and we are hopeful [PayPal will enter Pakistan],” Muhammad Abdul Ghafar Wattoo, member of the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Information Technology and Telecommunication, told Arab News.
PayPal, an Elon Musk-founded company, will allow Pakistani consumers to use the platform to shop online at some of the country’s most popular businesses. Merchants accepting PayPal will also be able to process both local and global payments through PayPal, getting access to the payment processor’s more than 218 million customers around the world and in Pakistan.
Industry insiders say one of the major bottlenecks to PayPal coming into Pakistan is a central bank-mandated $2 million license fee.
“For a company like PayPal, which earns between 2% to 3% on transactions, even a $100 million transaction a year could not justify a $2 million license fee,” Dawn reported this week.
Freelancer graphic designer Zoha Kaml Azmi said she was disappointed when she heard PayPal was refusing to start Pakistan operations.
“I had found a really good freelance site based in England but the client couldn’t pay me as I didn't have a PayPal account,” Azmi said. “I was very happy I could get myself registered on those freelance sites. PayPal is a global gateway that connects to the larger world. There are many freelance opportunities that I am missing because PayPal doesn’t exist in Pakistan.”
In the absence of PayPal or another internationally recognized payment gateways, Pakistani freelancers and SMEs have hacked other ways of providing services and being paid from abroad, according to the Secretary-General of the Pakistan Software Houses Association, Shehryar Hydri. Many SMEs and freelancers open accounts abroad through their relatives or friends and receive payments there, he said.
“From the government’s point of view, this is a major leakage in the system when people are forced to keep their money abroad,” Hydri said.
Pakistani technology company owners say Paypal launching operations in Pakistan could also solve the problem of stuck up payments abroad.
“Mostly clients in the US and Europe use PayPal,” said Mashal Amir, who heads Octopus Private Limited, a call center. “Whenever they float the project online they attach the conditions of having a PayPal account as well for payment. In Pakistan’s case, we miss opportunities due to non-existence of the facility and due to the payments remaining stuck for many years.”
He added: “The clients often question why they should open new account just for us on other networks when entire world works on PayPal.”
SM Arif, a financial and banking technologist, said the presence of global players like PayPal would allow access for Pakistani freelancers and companies to international markets.
“Otherwise it looks like they are operating in isolation,” Arif said. “To deal with foreigners in the international market you show the world that a conducive environment exists in your country. The big player boost the confidence of all players in that market. It makes you a part of the global economy, the world.”
Pakistan still ‘hopeful’ online payment giant PayPal will play ball
Pakistan still ‘hopeful’ online payment giant PayPal will play ball
- Around 200,000 freelancers, 7,000 small and medium enterprises will benefit if PayPal started operations in Pakistan
- Last week, a parliamentary committee said PayPal was afraid to enter Pakistan in absence of laws to protect company’s interests
Pakistan PM expresses solidarity with Morrocco as building collapse kills 22
- Two adjacent four-story buildings, housing eight families, collapsed in Morocco’s Fez city on Wednesday
- Such building collapses are not uncommon in Moroccan cities that are undergoing rapid population growth
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif expressed solidarity with Morocco and prayed for rescue efforts on Thursday as 22 people were reported dead after two buildings collapsed in the country’s Fez city.
Morocco’s state news agency, MAP, reported on Wednesday that two adjacent four-story buildings, which housed eight families, collapsed overnight in Fez. Sixteen people were injured and taken to the hospital as authorities said the neighborhood had been evacuated, and search and rescue efforts were ongoing.
Moroccan authorities said they had opened an investigation into the incident, while MAP reported that the structures were built in 2006 during an initiative called “City Without Slums.”
“My heartfelt condolences to the bereaved families and prayers for the swift recovery of the wounded,” Sharif wrote on social media platform X. “We stand in solidarity with the Government and people of Morocco in this hour of grief, and pray for the success of the ongoing rescue efforts.”
https://x.com/CMShehbaz/status/1998940192879911417
Such building collapses are not uncommon in Moroccan cities undergoing rapid population growth. A collapse in May in Fez killed 10 people and injured seven in a building that had been slated for evacuation, according to Moroccan outlet Le360.
Building codes are often not enforced in Morocco, especially in ancient cities where aging, multifamily homes of cinderblock are common.
Infrastructure inequality was a focus of protests that swept the country earlier this year, with demonstrators criticizing the government for investing in new stadiums instead of addressing inequality in health care, education and other public services.
With additional input from AP
