E-Commerce as Asia’s New Growth Engine

Abstract

The development of cross-border electronic commerce (e-commerce) is changing the world’s economic landscape. To better grasp the opportunities of this global trend of growth, Asian countries will still need to make progress in areas such as connectivity, services, rules and regulations, and labour skills. In addition to market mechanism that shall lead the transition, government policy can help the market maximize the advantage of information revolution, and avoid potential market failure. Asian countries may consider policy effort on promoting e-commerce from following aspects: Enabling an e-commerce growth environment, Improving connectivity, Encouraging value-added services, Accelerating rule–setting and regulatory harmonization, Promoting Internet financial innovation, Prioritizing the development of smartphone economy