PickMe calls on govt. to enable a level playing field

Home-grown taxi hailing app, PickMe called on the government to increase its efforts in creating a level playing field so that entities, such as itself, that has digital solutions as its core operations can compete better with multinationals in the industry.

“In terms of support we would encourage the government to enable a level playing field to compete against the digital multinationals. This is relevant to all digital domains, not just us,” said PickMe Chairman Ajit Gunewardene in the company’s annual report.
He stressed that all digital platforms should incorporate an onshore company to carry on commercial activity. 
“This will ring fence local operations and create transparency and a level playing field with local entities,” added Gunewardene.
Acknowledging that the future acceleration and dominance of the digital economy was proven during the pandemic, the PickMe chief said the Sri Lankan based entity was and continues to be “perfectly positioned” to be a key player.
“The digital intellect and business execution knowledge that we have will be leveraged to entrench ourselves deeper in the economy. We pride ourselves on the home grown technology that we have created,” said Gunewardene.
Meanwhile, PickMe CEO Zulfer Jiffry shared that the digital solutions company will be infused with further investment in the coming months, particularly in the delivery verticals.
“We consider this to be a natural hedge against our hailing business in the face of the uncertainty created by the Covid crisis,” said Jiffry.
He shared that PickMe is currently involved in testing technology in many areas such as better routing algorithms, Data science and Machine learning and Artificial Intelligence.
The company has also launched an incubator program and is the process of incubating a fintech that has developed a personalised financial inclusion product.