Extreme Commerce, Pakistan’s largest local and international eCommerce community, has announced an upgrade to their existing Digital Skills Learning Platform – Video Boot Camp (VBC).
In the updated VBC 2020 skills training, participants will have access to more than 50 practical and money-making digital skill development programs which will enable them to learn skills and earn up to $1000 each month, this is in line with the vision of generating an additional $1 billion annually through service sector exports by 2025.
Last year, Extreme Commerce announced its ‘Billion Dollar Pakistan 2025’ vision, where the company aims to generate $1 billion in economic activity annually in the next 5 years by 2025.
The company’s CEO, Sunny Ali says, “Our target is huge but our method is simple, we want to enable people to earn at least $1,000 each month through digital skills by setting up shop internationally on platforms such as Amazon and providing services to international and local clients.”
To put this into perspective, Pakistan’s total service sector exports currently amount to $5.505 billion, meanwhile, Extreme Commerce plans on adding around 18.2 percent to this figure. State Bank of Pakistan’s data suggests that service sector exports have grown by 4.5 percent YoY from FY19 to FY20 and are set to grow further in the coming years.
On the trade side, the Planning Commission’s estimates show that there is an expected sharp slowdown in imports of up to 60 percent, while exports could potentially go down by up to 10 percent. According to official estimates, the impact of trade contraction only on GDP could be up to 4.6 percent in the last quarter if combined imports and exports go down by 20 percent.
Interestingly enough, despite the slowdown on the trade side, e-commerce and other service sectors have seen sharp growth after the COVID-19 pandemic. Ecommerce alone has seen a 129 percent year-over-year growth in the United States and Canada, with an impressive 146 percent growth globally. It has also been estimated that by the end of 2020, global e-commerce sales are expected to reach $4.2 trillion.
Sunny Ali and his team believe that this is the right time for Pakistan to establish itself as the hub of service sector export.
He says that “Pakistan should take advantage of its population and train more and more people to export in-demand services to the international markets. It just makes more sense to sell our services internationally and bring the money back into Pakistan’s ecosystem. Moreover, international markets provide more opportunities for wealth creation than Pakistan.”
The new VBC2020 training platform covers skills such as setting up eCommerce stores on international platforms such as Amazon, Noon.com, Lazada, Etsy, eBay, Souq, Alibaba, and Shopify.
It also provides training for Pakistan’s largest eCommerce platform Daraz. Moreover, to accommodate people who might not have the start-up capital, the platform covers skills such as providing a range of services that include accounting, graphics design, virtual assistance, and many more to international clients through freelancing.
It also covers advanced skill training such as Google Analytics, 3D and 2D designing, Video Production, Arduino Programming, and Interfacing, Data Science, AutoCAD, Mobile App development, cloud computing, digital marketing, and many more.
All of these training programs have been designed with the help of leading industry experts. The VBC course costs just $180 but it is also worth mentioning that 93 percent, of VBC students, either use the platform free of cost or have had financial assistance from Extreme Commerce.
To further their vision of equipping Pakistan and boosting service sector exports Sunny Ali in a tweet announced that they will offer the VBC 2020 to all school, college, and university students across Pakistan.
While explaining Extreme Commerce’s vision for a Billion Dollar Pakistan further Sunny Ali said, “Minimum wage in Pakistan should be at least $1000, and we are just playing a very small part in making that happen.”
“We want Pakistan to be the experts when it comes to anything digital. We believe that people who use this platform will be able to use the skills they learn to set up multiple small and medium-sized businesses which in the long run will change the economic landscape of the country,” he added.
