BEIJING: Usman Ashraf, a Pakistani entrepreneur living in the Chinese capital has appreciated online entrepreneurial culture in China and said that the online marking and shopping is now growing very fast in Pakistan.
“I’ve seen many Chinese in their early 30s start their own business online. It’s a very good entrepreneurial culture and so I started my own e-business here,” noted Usman Ashraf, who is living in Beijing with his wife. The past four years had seen his accomplishment of education and career in China.
While Usman was still a graduate student in Beijing Language and Culture University (BLCU), he attended many conferences, business seminars and exhibitions, and these activities, as he put it, empowered him to live in China and start his career with the Chinese people.
Usman appreciates the “startup culture” in China very much. In China, there are many individual business people. “The entrepreneurial culture is very good for the youths, as they have the opportunity to develop themselves, even if they may not be successful,” he told media.
As per Usman, China is a major exporter that exports all kinds of goods to every corner of the world and Pakistan is set to be a main hub of export due to China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). “Ten years ago, there was no online marketing or online shopping in Pakistan, but now it’s growing very fast, so it’s a great opportunity for me to enter this market,” he explained.
Usman graduated from BLCU and launched a footwear brand called Hawks in December 2019, to export footwear products from China to Pakistan on Daraz, Pakistan’s biggest online shopping application that connects sellers and buyers virtually.
In 2020, many industries have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, Usman’s business has been boosted instead since he shifted to online business. “Due to the pandemic, many offline shops suffered but my online businesses didn’t,” he said.
“All the transactions can be done through WeChat and other online payment systems,” Usman’s wife Qurrat ul Ain came to China five months ago, and she has been impressed by many advanced and convenient technology in China, too.
“Technology makes everything easy here,” she mentioned that she’s still in the learning stage, but she likes to use WeChat and other online payment systems.
“Chinese people call me ‘Batie’ (iron-clad brothers). We don’t feel that we are working in a foreign country and this is our second home. The online entrepreneurial culture is quite attractive here,” Usman further mentioned. – Agencies
