E-commerce policy for cross border trade

Bangladesh’s Doing Business ranking has always been low, with the country placed 168th out of 190 nations in 2021. For valid reason, in addition to luring investment and trade from overseas, the government must ensure a pro-business environment with limited bottlenecks. E-commerce is the rage of the times and while this trend is widely seen within the country, proper e-commerce apparatus with necessary security measures is absent in the border areas.

Border area commerce implies transactions with India and the setting up of a reliable e-commerce system can minimize aberrations like money laundering.

As per a report published in this newspaper yesterday, there is no specific policy in the country to operate cross-border trade through digital platforms. Therefore, experts feel that preparing a time-appropriate cross-border digital policy or amending the existing relevant policies is crucial.

According to media reports, several e-commerce platforms are engaged in cross border trading although due to the absence of a proper guideline, there’s always the possibility of these getting involved in murky operations.

Meanwhile, traders have also called for an amendment of the existing import policy in order to accommodate online e-commerce marketplaces to facilitate payments to foreign sellers for low-value products imported by customers for personal use.

While cross border e-commerce is being dubbed a game changer, there are those with misgivings that due to a low demand of Bangladeshi products in India, cross border e-commerce may not turn out to be a trade facilitator.

The ‘low demand’ which has been put forward is possibly due to the absence of a proper digital marketing scheme.

Digital marketing is a key pillar of e-commerce which creates a demand through a catchy online marketing campaign.

Since 2014, twenty companies led the nation's digital marketplace revolution. Unlike traditional marketing, this involves strategies designed to engage consumers and drive brand conversation on various digital platforms.

The digital marketing industry has expanded mainly due to the rise in mobile transactions. According to reports, Tk. 70 billion is transferred every month through mobile phones. As per data, Bangladesh has the tenth-largest mobile phone user base in the world with sixty million internet connections.

So, the government needs to look into a cross border agreement with mobile companies for an Indo-Bangla digital marketing pace where products from both nations will be featured.

The e-commerce market is expected to triple in size by 2023, according to a recent report by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) on the cottage, micro, small, and medium enterprise (CMSME) sector. 

The local e-commerce sector is expected to be worth Tk26,000 crore or $3 billion next year from the current $1 billion or Tk8,500 crores, the report says. At present, there are about 2,500 e-commerce companies in the country and at least 50,000 business pages on Facebook.

Cross border trading can get a fillip if Facebook is also brought into the equation to allow products from Bangladesh to be featured on Indian web sites. As per the editorial of a leading English daily, the current market value of the industry stands at $2.32 billion, which should reach $ 3bn by 2023.

However, the editorial also underlines the need for a robust framework that would prevent exploitation. In recent times, unscrupulous acts of several e-commerce companies corroded the confidence of consumers.

The politic move would be to begin with a strategy that will cover digital advertising, country to country agreement and a free flow of information between India and Bangladesh.

Also, traders who want to carry out business honestly need to be made tech savvy to make the optimum usage of cross border e-commerce.

The government may mull setting up an e-commerce support centre at all land ports.