PayPal, Stripe To Start Operation In Pakistan Soon; IT Minister

Web Desk — In a bid to push the country’s IT exports, the interim government is chalking out a strategy to bring online payment giants PayPal, and Stripe to Pakistan.

There was a huge increase of around 24 percent in Pakistan’s IT exports in May 2023 while the annual number was recorded at $2.6 billion in 2022.

Caretaker IT Minister and tech pioneer Dr. Umar Saif said his government had planned to boost IT exports by $5 billion by training over 2 hundred thousand professionals, channelizing dollar retention accounts, and bringing global online payment platforms Paypal and Stripe to Pakistan.

More than 6 lac Pakistanis are selling their IT services around the world, mostly through freelance work or different IT techs, and raking in $250 million per month in export remittances to South Asian countries.

Freelancers, amid a continued surge in IT exports, have to face payment issues as the world’s major online payment platforms Paypal, and Stripe are currently not operating in Pakistan. It is mainly due to a lack of business opportunities, and regulatory and compliance issues, besides concerns of fraud and money laundering.

In a social media post, Dr Umar Saif said besides bringing PayPal and Stripe to Pakistan, the IT Ministry is establishing co-working spaces for 500,000 freelancers to increase their potential to an additional $3 billion per year.

The minister mentioned the 5G auction within ten months by implementing active spectrum sharing, progressive taxation policies, and favorable regulations.