PHL Hosts ASEAN/UNCTAD E-Commerce Workshop 

Organizers and participants to the ASEAN/UNCTAD E-commerce Workshop in Makati City

22 November 2017 MAKATI — The Philippines in its capacity as Chair of the ASEAN during this 50th anniversary year, in cooperation with the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the ASEAN Secretariats, respectively, organized the first ASEAN/UNCTAD Workshop on E-Commerce from November 08 to 09 in Makati Diamond Residences. The purpose of the workshop was for ASEAN Member States to share experiences on E-Commerce as well as listen to the views of experts from international organizations such as the World Bank and ADB among others, as well as private companies that specialize in E-Commerce such as Lazada.com.

By hosting this workshop, the Philippines affirmed its commitment to support E-Commerce to help individual member countries of the regional grouping pursue their development goals and in line with the goals of the ASEAN Economic Community to foster greater connectivity.

In her opening remarks, Undersecretary Ruth B. Castelo of the Department of Trade and Industry emphasized that as “the world is in a new era with digital transformation opening up challenges and opportunities, pursuing this method is imperative and the digital transformation in government is being done.”

She emphasized that “UNCTAD will be able to help developing countries like the Philippines via cooperation in projects that would make MSMEs more competitive and allow them to grow in a highly competitive market place.”

At the 31st ASEAN Summit, Leaders recognized that advances in e-commerce allows MSMEs to go beyond local frontiers and reach clientele and markets that were previously inaccessible. They welcomed the adoption and look forward to the implementation of the ASEAN Work Programme on E-Commerce 2017-2025 that will pave the way for the ASEAN Agreement on E-Commerce. ASEAN Leaders affirmed that ASEAN will embrace the evolving digital technology as leverage to enhance trade and investments and provide an e-based business platform. 

The Permanent Mission of the Philippines to the United Nations in Geneva started organizing the Workshop as early as April 2017 when it held a Brainstorming Session among ASEAN E-Commerce experts regarding the activity in Geneva. The DTI and DFA, together with the Secretariats of ASEAN and UNCTAD then began to work together to prepare and organize the Workshop. This activity is very much in line with the work being done on Innovation, MSMEs, and digital E-Commerce that was concluded at the ASEAN Summit.

During the closing session, Mr. Raphael Hermoso, First Secretary of the Philippine Mission in Geneva, highlighted the need “to ensure that what we discussed, learned from each other, and agreed upon, is translated into meaningful actions and activities with the end goal of promoting the development of our region, the individual AMS, and most important of all, improving the lives of our citizens, so that they may experience the benefits of E-commerce.”

He added that “In future meetings we must always keep in mind that our end goal should be the promotion of the various development efforts and how activities like E-commerce can help us achieve our common development agenda.” END

For more information, visit www.genevapm.dfa.gov.ph or https://www.facebook.com/genevapcg.