Washington: Pak Ambassador to the United States Masood Khan has said that more than 6,000 sellers from Pakistan were registered last year on Amazon platforms after the leading global e-commerce giant opened seller registration for the country. “This was a significant breakthrough for Pakistan providing much-needed international online business exposure to the country”, he continued. “According to Amazon, these sellers have done good, steady business over the past few months. This is just a beginning, with a promise of huge expansion”, continued the Ambassador of Pakistan. He said the volume of Amazon-supported businesses would grow exponentially with better networking and integration with US online platforms. He was addressing a 35-member delegation of the Washington Intergovernmental Professional Group (WIPG) who interacted with him at the Embassy today. WIPG helps professionals in maximizing their network, realizing their full potential and delivering value to various stakeholders. It also assists companies, associations, and organizations to connect with the right kind of workforce to achieve organizational goals. The delegation comprised former governor of Puerto Rico Luis Fortuno, WIPG President Nelson Garcia, economists, government officials, presidents and CEOs of corporations, entrepreneurs, investment fund managers, legal experts, and diplomats. The Ambassador said that better networking among Pak-US professionals, IT experts, businessmen, entrepreneurs, and corporate leaders would create win-win solutions for the two countries and would help meet the growing needs of the US economy. “In the past two decades, the two countries remained focused on tackling security issues in the region. These decades of lost economic and business opportunities for Pakistan need to be substituted with massive investment and commercial activities”, emphasized the Pakistan envoy. Masood Khan said that with a 220 million population with its 100 million middle class, 130 million youth below the age of 30 years, 110 million mobile broadband subscribers, and a tech-savvy young human capital, Pakistan provides ideal conditions for the US investors and entrepreneurs to explore, invest and expand their businesses not only to Pakistan but to Central Asia, West Asia, Middle East, and North America. Highlighting the remarkable growth of start-ups and the tech sector in Pakistan during the past few months, the Ambassador said that the tech sector of the country was taking off and poised to serve the entire region. The Ambassador said that all efforts were being made to create strong linkages at all levels including government-to-government, business-to-business, and most importantly people-to-people contacts. Our diaspora, he said, is the most reliable and resilient connecting tissue binding the two countries and their people together. We have to work together to further strengthen our partnerships in all possible areas including trade, investment, health, energy, climate change, green and renewable energy, and agriculture. The Ambassador thanked the Washington-based group for exploring ways to integrate Pak professionals with their peers in America. Pakistan, he said, had a growing reservoir of a capable workforce. Later, the Ambassador responded to the questions of the participants about business opportunities in Pakistan, Pakistani exports to the US including rice, and the security situation in South Asia.