E-BUSINESS IN PAKISTAN

Abstract

Economic history has witnessed transformation from Agriculture based to Manufacturing based economies over the time. This transformation had its effects on social structure of the communities, as new types of jobs were created in the manufacturing industries, and new life styles of metropolitan culture evolved. A similar transformation is now taking place as; business has grown global over the last years, making the present business atmosphere further competitive, fast and fluid. Technological and political events taking place across the world affect us as strongly as something happening in our neighborhood. The two most recent and prominent developments of present times that have changed our economic activities are: - 1. Globalization and, 2. Increase in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). Globalization is most obvious, as the volume of global trade and products have expanded many folds. The world economies are opening-up to new world horizons. Developments in Information Technology has increased the pace of the events, bringing new products to markets from all over the world, increasing the global watch and reach of the organizations, as a result of this the companies are forced to reduce the costs and product development time of their products. Second prominent development taking place during this time is the increase in ICT. These ICTs (particularly Intranets/Internet) have provided new channels and means of acquiring knowledge and opened new doors of promising opportunities like e-business. Sharp decrease in cost of computer hardware and software, plus improvement in software development has been responsible for increasing Page 4 number of firms using computers in their business processes. Computer has proved itself to be a revolutionary tool for management, its data & information processing capabilities has improved management in all domains. “Knowledge centric” view of firm has lately emerged. “The economists, academics, and commentators agree that a firm can best be seen as a coordinated collection of capabilities that is somehow bounded by its own history. And limited in its effectiveness by its own current cognitive and social skill” (Prusak -2001) The “New Economic” system emerging in global arena presently has a growing share of “E-enabled and E-businesses”. Productivity in manufacturing is increasing and a decline in factory jobs (as a sh are of total employment) is noted. Jobs in services sector are growing, as most of the industries and firms are organizing work around technology. The sources of competitive advantage in “Old Economy” also called “Heavy Economy” like access to raw material , transportation routes, or customer markets, a large labor pool are now becoming less important. The new economic success factors are effective homegrown technological innovation and entrepreneurship. The most valuable input for the firm now is the skill and talent of their workforce; a pool of skilled workers is the most important industry location factor. This emerging economic system due to its reliance on Knowledge is loosely defined as “Knowledge based Economy”. The objective of this paper is to brin g the topic of E-Business in focus with respect to Pakistan’s standing from a technological and economic viewpoint. A detailed discussion on the e-business and e-readiness in the world scenario is made. At the end of the paper some suggestions to improve the current state have also been given.