IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

The European Union is setting its sights on online commerce, supposedly in a bid to help remove barriers to cross-border trade across the EU - just two months after introducing VAT rules that have widely discouraged small traders from selling outside their home geographies.

Competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager said that the investigation into online commerce, announced this week, would examine the barriers to the growth of e-commerce across the EU, and could lead to action against companies that deliberately block online sales, according to newswire Reuters.

The past four years have seen a busy journey for the e-commerce market in the Southeast Asian region.

A report from Google and Temasek showed the proportion of e-commerce sector in the internet economy was up to 32 per cent in the region this year.

The Vietnamese market in particular, the size of the sector is about US$2.8 billion, with annual growth of 87 per cent.

In addition to company services already available online, Allyson Maynard-Gibson, Minister of Financial Services and Investments, launched the first phase of a series of automation projects expected to be completed by January 1, 2006. She announced that the deeds and documents section of the Registrar General's Department was fully automated and would be available to the public online effective June 1, with records dating back to 1993.

Several major brands are set to participate in the virtual service

Bahrain's Ministry of Industry has launched a virtual mall to enable shops to continue serving their customers during the ongoing global COVID-19 outbreak.

Launched by the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Tourism, the mall.bh website, which officially opened on Thursday April 23, features a range of products from more than 100 companies operating in the kingdom including fashion, homeware and electronics.

Local media reported that Cuban authorities'' interests and strategies are aimed at develcarrying out to develop e-commerce in the country as a fundamental element for the immediate future.

Cubadebate is one of the website that reflects such a decision and its potentialities, especially in the face of new economic methods in Cuba.

E-commerce and m-commerce in general continue to rise and rise around the world. Other trends closely linked to this such as e-health and e-government initiatives also continue to gather pace. However, there is a divide occurring with some of the poorest nations around the world still unable to access suitable digital infrastructure to access such services.

This report provides a comprehensive overview of trends and developments for the Global Digital Economy in terms of the Sharing Economy, E-commerce, E-health, E-education and E-government. The report analyses the key trends occurring in these sectors, supported by statistics and examples.

A wealth of research exists in the public domain in regards to the importance that the millennial generation has on global society. The characteristics of this group have a profound impact on the way that businesses attract and retain the attention of new buyers.

According to a study commissioned by the 1Bank of America Merrill Lynch, there are over 2 billion millennials around the world, of which around 86% live in emerging markets. When we look closer to home, this group accounts for over one-third of the entire GCC population.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution is taking place around the world with a boom in digital technology, creating great opportunities for but also challenges to the development of each country, enterprise, and person.

Vietnam’s digital economy has been growing at the fastest pace in ASEAN, about 38 percent annually compared to the region’s average of 33 percent since 2015. The country expects the digital economy will make up 20 percent of its GDP and at least 10 percent in each sector.

E-commerce involves buying and selling of products and services by businesses and consumers through an electronic medium. Broadly, e-commerce is classified into four categories: business to business or B2B (Cisco), business to consumer or B2C (Amazon), consumer to consumer or C2C (eBay) and Business-to-Government (B2G).

Business-to-business e-commerce involves agreements between the businesses and businesses. Distribution management, inventory management, channel management, supplier management and payment management are some of the areas in which B2B applications are widely used. In Bangladesh, bgmea.com.bd, bizbangladesh.com are examples of B2B platforms.

The market among individuals was estimated at $1 billion and between businesses at $ 1.3bn in 2014

Qatar’s e-commerce market is growing at a rate of ten per cent, which is higher than the global average, Dr Hessa al-Jaber, Qatar’s Minister of Information and Communications Technology, states.

During the opening of the Qatar e-Commerce Forum organised by the Ministry of Telecommunications, Dr Hessa says that the e-commerce market among individuals in Qatar was estimated at $1 billion and between businesses at $ 1.3bn in 2014, Qatar News Agency (QNA) reports.

Difficult to understand why this public-private solution has not spread to more than some half a dozen countries (not a big source of income for banks of course - more a question of better customer service and taking responsibility for speeding up e-government. Technology vendors naturally try to sell a separate tool for every purpose - but endusers prefer familiar ones.

The plan argues that the internet economy has contributed to a 21 per cent growth in GDP within the G8 economies over the past five years.

Die Baden-Württemberger surfen oft und gerne im Internet. Bei der Internet-Verbreitung liegen sie an der Spitze von fünf ausgewählten Regionen in Europa. Zu diesem Ergebnis kommt eine Studie des Fraunhofer-Instituts für Systemtechnik und Innovationsforschung ISI in Karlsruhe.

Geo-blocking consumers’ online access to goods and services on the basis of their IP address, postal address or the country of issue of credit cards is unjustified and it must stop, says Parliament in a resolution voted on Tuesday. MEPs want Europe to seize the opportunities opened up by new technologies, such as Big Data, cloud computing, the Internet of Things or 3D-printing, and to have an innovation-friendly policy towards online platforms.

The 16 digital single market initiatives announced by the European Commission last May to boost the digital economy and innovation must be tabled without delay, MEPs insist.

"We have ensured that this report on the digitisation of the EU economy, society and public administrations determines legislative and non-legislative action to benefit consumers and to preserve Europe’s competitive social market economies”, said Internal Market Committee co-rapporteur Evelyne Gebhardt (S&D, DE).