By Raza Khan ISLAMABAD, April 18 (INP-WealthPK): E-commerce emerged as the largest sector to contribute to Pakistani start-ups in 2021, raising $211 million in 26 deals, reports WealthPK. An amount of $315 million was also raised in 64 deals from 2015 to 2021, according to the Pakistan Startup Ecosystem Report 2021 by Invest2Innovate – a consultancy firm that supports startup communities in growth market. The grocery sector raised $136 million, retails $33.7 million, while other sectors of e-commerce raised $41.3 million in 2021. The deal marks the amount invested and what the investor gets in return. Both the federal and Punjab governments, under the umbrellas of Ignite and Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB), have also played role in skills development function in the e-commerce sector, said the report. Ignite (digiskills.pk), an online marketplace focusing on in-demand skills, boasts over 1.8 million sign-ups while claiming IT exports of $20 million. On the other hand, PITB’s e-Rozgaar takes a more centralized approach by offering courses across four tracks, technical, content marketing and advertising, creative design, and e-commerce with centres in 36 districts. “It claims to have trained over 35,000 candidates who in turn have earned approximately $20 million since then,” the report said. It further said that in the last few years, a number of industry associations had also been established. “These groups play an important role in policy advocacy largely uncovered by the existing legal framework,” said the report. Similarly, leading e-commerce players have joined hands to form the E-commerce Association of Pakistan, while edtech start-ups have founded the Ilm Association as a joint front. Following the boost in the IT sector, the government launched E-commerce Policy in 2019, intending to strengthen the payments infrastructure and streamline the legal framework. The National E-commerce Council, comprising public and private sector representatives, was created afterwards. According to the report, the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) formally added a separate category for e-commerce to the company incorporation, and 1,131 new entities have since been registered in the last two years. The National Freelancing Facilitation Policy, which was launched in May 2021, announced measures that included reducing bureaucratic red tape for small exporters selling online. The number of active freelancers in Pakistan rose to one million. This effort aimed to benefit smaller independent individuals/ businesses in the IT Sector. As per the most recent iteration of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the findings compiled within the Business-to-Consumer E-commerce, Pakistan has marginally improved its ranking from 117 in 2018 to 114. Although Pakistan has maintained a similar level of performance as Bangladesh, it still lags behind other peer nations. According to the local e-commerce firm Daraz, Punjab province was the highest contributor to e-commerce with the order ratio of 55% in 2021. Sindh province contributed 36% to the e-commerce market, while Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan cumulatively contributed the remaining 9% during the last fiscal year.