E-commerce can lower entry barriers to markets and reduce transaction costs in doing businesses, and therefore, facilitate business and trade and lead to further economic growth and additional job creation.

To realize the potential growth of e-commerce and cross-border e-commerce, governments need to implement more proactive policy measures. Additionally, multilateral organizations and the private sector should cooperate in fostering conducive environments. ADB and ESCAP support various activities and initiatives to promote e-commerce in Asia and the Pacific.

Against this backdrop, this workshop aims to identify programmatic approaches for promoting e-commerce and cross-border e-commerce in the participating countries of the workshop. The participants will learn global trends and issues in key development opportunities through interactive discussions. It is expected that around 50 participants from governments, international development partners, academia and private sector from the selected developing countries in Asia and the Pacific will join the workshop. In addition, ADB staff directly related to ADB’s operations in trade facilitation and finance sector will participate and discuss the potential opportunities for ADB to support developing countries in enhancing e-commerce and cross-border ecommerce, particularly through a comprehensive and programmatic approach.