A high-level delegation from the Gates Foundation, comprising President of the Gender Equality Division Dr Anita Zaidi and Interim President of the Global Policy & Advocacy Division Dr Kalpana Kochhar called on Minister of State for Finance Bilal Azhar Kayani, in Islamabad to review progress on Pakistan's digital transformation agenda.

The Minister briefed the delegation about the progress on Cashless Pakistan initiative, launched under the Prime Minister's direct supervision, highlighting the rapid scale-up in digital payments and merchant adoption of Raast QR.

He noted that active merchants on digital payments have grown from 0.5 million to 2.03 million. He also shared updates on rising digital transactions, growing digital banking users, and improving financial inclusion, particularly the narrowing gender gap in access to financial services, and reaffirmed the government's commitment to expanding transparency and efficiency in public payments.

The Minister of State also spoke about the government's broader economic reform agenda, underscoring the need to document and formalize the economy to strengthen fiscal sustainability. He highlighted the newly introduced “Asaan Tax Scheme” for small traders, designed to bring merchants into the formal economy through incentive-based, voluntary registration rather than enforcement alone.

The Gates Foundation delegation endorsed the progress, that has been made so far to digitize Pakistan economy and assured their continue support through Karandaaz.