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Cambodia: AOSD 2023 to boost cross-border e-commerce
Dozens of Cambodian businesses, especially from the SME sector, are expected to join e-businesses across the region for ASEAN Online Sale Day 2023 (AOSD 2023), the largest online shopping event in Southeast Asia, scheduled to take place from August 8 to 22.
The event, being organised to mark the 56th ASEAN Day, will also provide consumers in Cambodia and other countries in the region a chance to shop on the digital platform onlineasean.com and obtain attractive discounts on various goods and services.
ASEAN Online Sale Day, held annually since 2020, aims to promote domestic as well as cross-border e-commerce in the region and is organized by the ASEAN Coordinating Committee on E-commerce. This year the event is held for two weeks, unlike last year when it was conducted only for three days.
The annual online shopping event brings together the best of Asean businesses, goods and services across the region on a single platform. Consumer goods, electronics, food and beverages, cosmetics and beauty products and tourism and travel packages are made available on the e-platform along with several other products and services as part of the event.
The AOSD is also meant to enhance stronger collaboration between stakeholders, including government agencies, the private sector, business associations and consumers, to explore new policy initiatives and to advance innovative technologies in the promotion of cross-border e-commerce activities.
The two main groups of AOSD 2023 activities are domestic e-commerce shopping and cross-border e-commerce shopping. “Through this programme, enterprises across Asean Member States (AMS) will have good opportunities to promote their domestic products/services to customers living in different economies across Asean,” said the onlineasean.com website.
According to experts, Asean’s e-commerce sector is expected to triple in size from $100 billion to $300 billion by 2025. The Covid-19 pandemic has further boosted this trend of e-commerce adoption.
It was estimated that in Southeast Asia, 40 million people came online for the first time in 2021 alone, bringing the internet penetration in the region to 75 percent. Consumption of digital services has remained strong more than a year into the pandemic – a trend that will likely continue. The total number of internet users in the region has grown to 440 million, up from 250 million in 2015.
This year, AOSD hopes to further accelerate these trends and encourage consumers and businesses to engage in e-commerce across the region. The initiative also serves to reinforce and position the role of e-commerce and digital integration as the key drivers of Asean’s economic growth.
In 2019, ASEAN Economic Ministers (AEM) signed the ASEAN Agreement on Electronic Commerce, intended to facilitate the growth of e-commerce transactions in the region and deepen cooperation among its members. The aim is to promote e-commerce by creating an environment of trust and confidence in the region.
In 2020, more than 200 e-commerce businesses in Asean participated in the first AOSD and offered a large range of goods and services at promotional or discounted rates through their e-commerce platforms. The event continued to grow in 2021 and 2022, with the participation of more than 500 businesses.
By the end of this year, regional e-commerce is predicted to reach $113.90 billion before climbing to $175 billion by the end of 2027. Considering this optimistic outlook, Asean is on track to become a $1 trillion e-commerce economy by 2030.
In Cambodia, the e-commerce sector has registered consistent growth since 2020. The market value of e-commerce in Cambodia is estimated to reach $1.11 billion in the last year, $1.28 billion this year, $1.50 billion next year and $1.78 billion in 2025.
Ky Sereyvath, senior economist and Director General of the Institute of China Studies at the Royal Academy of Cambodia, told Khmer Times that e-commerce plays an important role in the Cambodian economy now.
“However, most of the Cambodian e-businesses still use Facebook to conduct their trade though it is not an e-commerce platform in the proper sense,” Sereyvath said.
Source: https://www.khmertimeskh.com/501318151/aosd-2023-to-boost-cross-border-e-commerce/