AJK business community can unleash its true potential through E-commerce

MIRPUR (AJK): Mar 08 (APP): “The policy advocacy skill is an essential component of business leadership as it empowers people to create consensus-based solutions to complex issues”, said Faisal Manzoor, President Mirpur (AJK) Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

“Such skills also enhance the ability of the business leaders to present their cases in a non-violent and structured manner before authorities and their constituencies”, he added while addressing a policy advocacy workshop organized by the Centre for Peace, Development and Reforms (CPDR) in collaboration with the Mirpur AJK Chamber of Commerce and Industry here Tuesday.

The participants of the workshop including sitting and former office holders of the chamber and key business leaders shared their views and underlined the need to conduct more training sessions to enhance the trade union representatives’ negotiation and policy advocacy skills.

The business community has suffered the most during the Covid-19 lockdowns but no concrete steps have been taken by the Government of AJK to support it, Faisal Manzoor said. He suggested that the AJK Government should provide special incentives to the members of the business community while they are trying to recoup themselves for their losses.

In a detailed presentation, Kashmir born Dr. Waqas Kausar, Head of Public Policy Department, NUML University, Islamabad, said that the business community needs to explore more economic opportunities in the non-traditional sectors such as e-commerce and digital world as due to Covid-19 pandemic businesses have largely moved from in-person shopping to the digital world.

He also emphasized that the leaders of the AJK Chamber of Commerce and Industry should increase their interaction with other small businessmen all across Azad Jammu Kashmir and educate them about the emerging opportunities in the sector of tourism and hospitality.

Speakers representing corporate sector, academia, media information technology including Faisal Latif, a renowned IT and E-commerce Expert, independent analyst and writer Ershad Mahmood, Vice President MCCI Mirpur Malik Azhar, ex SVP AJKCCI Raja Khalid Mahmood Khan, senior Kashmiri journalist Altaf Hamid Rao and others said that the business community needs to equip itself with the latest technology and focus more on E-market in order to benefit from the global market.

“The government must provide assistance and training to the business community to unleash its true potential through E-commerce, Faisal Latif strongly suggested.

In this background, he underlines the significance of the policy advocacy skills to convince the government and respective departments to pay heed to the chambers’ demands.