Sialkot has a significant contribution to Pakistan’s total annual exports. The city is famous worldwide for its top-notch sports goods, leather garments, and surgical instruments.
An estimate by the Sialkot Business and Commerce Centre (SBCC) shows that over 400,000 people are linked with the city’s export industry either directly or indirectly, bringing $2 billion to the national exchequer annually.
Recently, Alibaba’s Pakistan Business Growth Manager, Muhammad Sadiq, revealed that most of the Pakistani sellers on the Chinese multinational platform are based in Sialkot.
While addressing a summit of Alibaba’s sellers, Sadiq said that 85% of Pakistan’s total sellers on Alibaba are from Sialkot.
Besides, there are over 3.2 million listings by Pakistani sellers on Alibaba. 63% of the total listings belong to the apparel and clothing category. The rest of the listings belong to sports, entertainment, health, medical, tools, hardware, and mineral categories.
Alibaba’s Country Head for Pakistan, Song Song, also addressed the summit through a video link. He said that Pakistan’s B2B e-commerce market will attain an annual growth rate of 28% in the next three years.
On the flip side, Song also highlighted that Karachi hosts only 3.3% of the total sellers on Alibaba, calling on exporters from the country’s economic hub to step forward and change these dynamics over the coming three years.
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