Although there are a number of aspects that should be addressed to use Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) to serve society as a whole, this paper will focus on how Pakistan can achieve its share in the rapidly growing Digital Economy (DE) pie. DE is not just part of the economy — it is the economy now. It is also called the ‘Internet Economy’ because everything happens over the Internet with the help of smartphones, computers, applications and software. DE is a transition of the traditional economy to an economy which uses digital technologies for the same purpose.

The services, which are being created through the Internet revolution, are creating new businesses, including the largest businesses of our times like Amazon, Netflix, Facebook, Google, Uber, Alibaba, etc. The arrival of Internet of Things (IOT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), and 3D printing has further brought DE out in the open. According to Brown (2017), ‘Internet is set to contribute USD 6.6 trillion a year, or 7.1 percent of the total GDP in the G20 countries.’

Digitisation allows enterprises to manage their businesses using Enterprise Resource Management (ERM) solutions cost effectively. A digital enterprise attracts the best available talent, and digitisation also helps in retention of that talent because the brightest boys and girls, coming out of colleges and universities, are used to – and therefore like - working with digital tools. A KPMG-Google study shows that small enterprises, which expand their businesses beyond their hometowns, double if they are digitally enabled. The instant review system, available when something is bought online, is a flawless way of marketing products through customer experience, at no cost. Digitisation allows monitoring of enterprise workers almost on a minute-to-minute basis, which is particularly important where the customers expect immediate response, like in the case of travel agents.

Pakistan’s current ranking at 144 in the World Bank’s Ease-of-Doing Business 2017 does not inspire confidence among overseas investors, which has a lot to do with lack of digitisation of the country’s economy. Unfortunately, no authentic data is available regarding the size of Pakistan’s digital economy, but rough estimates place it at USD 100 million, which is pitiably small. With rapid growth of connectedness (46 million plus broadband connections, and counting) the country’s e-commerce has the potential of jumping from USD 2 billion to USD 5 billion by 2020 (Hamid and Khalid 2016).

Most of Pakistan’s enterprises do not make use of any digital tools in their businesses, other than social media, email and spread-sheets. Lack of awareness is one of the main causes most enterprises do not even know what benefits digitisation would bring them. Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) think that they are constrained by financial and other resources – not knowing that services delivered from the cloud make it far less costly than it used to be. There is also the fear that digitisation would expose them to the taxman – a huge challenge for the government which it must address even if there is no digitisation. There is also a dark side of the Internet. Coping with increasing number of cyber attacks, the growing expertise of hackers and the thriving black market for stolen data (or ‘ransom’ data) requires more resources and greater emphasis on cyber security. This paper will attempt to suggest what policies will have to be re-shaped and what steps need to be taken so that ICTs play their role in overcoming the challenges confronting Pakistan that are preventing us from joining the rest of the world in enjoying the benefits of the Digital Economy.

Brown, K. 2017, ‘Securing Our Digital Economy’, Internet Society, 7 April, .

Hamid, N. and Khalid, F. 2016, ‘Entrepreneurship and Innovation in the Digital Economy’,

The Lahore Journal of Economics 21, September, pp. 273–312. .