http://today.thefinancialexpress.com.bd/views-reviews/e-commerce-the-role-of-fdi-1553526436
E-commerce: The role of FDI MS Siddiqui | March 26, 2019
E-commerce technologies and business models are evolving rapidly around the world. As the sector is increasingly using sophisticated technologies su ch as artificial intelligence, machine learning, and big data, more consumers have been able to enjoy the increased convenience of online shopping and super-fast delivery. E-commerce technologies have also allowed small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) established in any part of most of the developing and developed countries to tap global markets and value chains with minimal additional cost and effort. Major e-commerce categories include business to -business (B2B), businessto-consumer (B2C), consumer-to-consumer (C2C), and business-to government (B2G) transactions. In many least developed countries (LDCs) and developing countries in Asia and the Pacific , e-commerce use among firms is extremely low. For instance, in September 2017, Pakistan only had some 400 e-commerce vendors, roughly 0.44 per cent of its estimated 900,000 physical stores. Philippines had 0.5 per cent of its retail sales conducted online in 2015. Armenia's e-commerce amounted to 0.08 per cent of GDP in 2012 and Bangladesh's online grocery market is just 0.03 per cent of its overall grocery sales (Bansal 2017). In contrast, in 2016, the share of online fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) to total FMCG market was estimated at 16.6 per cent in the Republic of Korea. Bangladesh has the potential to increase investment to facilitate expansion of the e-commerce market. But it is likely to face many challenges particularly in developing countries. Some ways of reducing these barriers include (i) enacting e-commerce legislation, (ii) implementing measures that will make e-commerce more affordable and accessible, (iii) directly facilitating and supporting e-commerce activities, and (iv) launching publ icprivate partnership programmes. Legal barriers are one of the major barriers to adopting both domestic and cross -border e-commerce, especially in developing countries. The government has been encouraging foreign direct investment (FDI) into the e-commerce sector alongside other sectors in the country. Recently the