The charm of a tech-savvy world that promises a comfortable living is too compelling for Pakistanis to miss. They believe the mainstreaming of the e-commerce value chain by getting plugged in with global giants like e-Bay, Paypal and Alibaba will change the dynamics of business and widen prosperity.

Putting in place a proper framework for online payments within Pakistan and linking it with these global e-commerce outlets might take a year, a senior IT ministry official told Dawn.

Experts believe that by streamlining online payments to make them easily accessible for smartphone users, companies delivering online consumer services will be on a fast-track path to progress.

IT ministry spokesperson Saghir Watoo told this writer over phone from Islamabad that an inter-ministerial body is coordinating and pushing the relevant authorities to quickly complete the groundwork for a secure and efficient online payment system.

“The ball is currently in the court of the commerce ministry for developing an e-commerce framework. The IT ministry and the State Bank are ready to assist them with whatever they might need,” he said.

The speed with which ordinary citizens have adapted to mobile phones and integrated them into their lives reflects both the desire and the capacity of Pakistanis to become the drivers and beneficiaries of technological advancement.

At least seven out of every 10 Pakistanis use a mobile phone today. Back in 2005, the teledensity in the country was 8.3pc. It shot up to 73.3pc by January 2015, according to data available on the website of the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA). This translates into 134.4m subscribers.

The speed with which ordinary citizens have adapted to mobile phones and integrated them into their lives reflects both the desire and the capacity of Pakistanis to become the drivers and beneficiaries of technological advancement

The growth in the number of 3/4G users has been faster. In four months, 4.5m new subscribers were added in this category, with their number going from 13.5m in June to 18m in September.

The data is reflected in the common sight of ordinary citizens liberally using mobile phones for social connectivity, accessing information and e-commerce.

It is interesting to watch that the time-worn bureaucratic structures did not obstruct this transformation. The government’s performance in this regard may be far from perfect, but the policy framework under successive governments did promote the availability of affordable cell phones for common citizens and indirectly brought down the cost of connectivity by ensuring open competition.

And internet accessibility through the awarding of 3/4G licences to service providers has opened up new vistas for many businesses, old and new.

Affordable smart phones and cheap internet access in a country on the cusp of an economic leap is exciting technology companies preparing to partake in the expected economic ascent.

The unending distressing stories of traditional sectors such as textiles are balanced in the larger context by the success of countless start-ups run by a new class of young entrepreneurs, who see problems as challenges and are confident enough to take the bull by its horns. There are countless new companies experimenting and testing their ideas in the lucrative domestic market.

Paul Midy, the global CEO of Jovago, which specialises in hotel and vacation rentals, was recently in Karachi on his fourth trip to Pakistan since the company was launched mid last year.

The young French man in his mid-30s is all smiles as he talks about the present and the future of his company in Pakistan. He claims a 40pc month-on-month growth in the company’s sales, but shies away from sharing actual returns on what he describes “a multi-million euro investment in Pakistan by a German venture capital outfit Rocket Internet in Jovago”. With a group of under-30 employees in his office, he looks perfectly comfortable.

Responding to a question, he says Pakistan fulfils all four conditions that his company considers before entering a new territory: “the penetration level of smart phones; access to affordable internet connection; availability of skill set in prospective employees; key economic indicators; and the number of players in our area of expertise. We found Pakistan to be a perfect destination on the basis of our criteria,” Midy says.

Sharing his experience in the business of the hotel-booking website, he says it records and ranks hotels and offers online information and assists prospective travellers in Pakistan to get the best value for their money. So far, Jovago has made 2,000 hotels around Pakistan accessible on the internet; yet, these make up barely 1pc of the 200,000 hotels that are accessible worldwide on Javago.

He believes that the actual number of hotels could actually be four times the ones that have been registered so far. Looking forward, he hopes to join in the drive to promote tourism in Pakistan and its projection as an attractive and affordable tourist spot as the security situation improves.

He also hopes that as the economic growth picks up pace, local people will learn the value of investing in vacations, which reinvigorates working people. He is all praise for Pakistan’s scenic beauty spots.

If illiteracy, poverty and backwardness did not stop the people here from embracing the cell phone revolution, there is nothing that can come in the way of advancing on the chosen path with zest.

Published in Dawn, Business & Finance weekly, November 30th, 2015