Telling the trade stories of least developed countries

LDCs have traditionally relied on high-cost, low-impact means of showing off their goods by, for example, hiring booths at trade shows and expos. Ecommerce platforms allow them to exponentially grow the number of products they can show off to potential customers, simplify the selling process, reduce transactional costs, increase trade revenues, and boost economic growth.

Myanmar was already moving to get its businesses online. With COVID-19, they were able to speed things up.

Partnerships with development agencies and government efforts to boost the digital economy are helping soften the economic blow of the pandemic.

Originally published in OECD-Development Matters on 6 July 2020

The macroeconomic context for developing country trade in the time of COVID-19

Recently launched ecommerce training program and portal will help hundreds of women entrepreneurs in South Asian LDCs become part of regional and global supply chains.

UNCTAD has assessed the state of play in the two countries and identified policy actions required to harness ecommerce for development.

Taking traditional African prints and making them modern, a female entrepreneur is aiming to go global – armed with the right business tools

UNCTAD's assessment identifies available opportunities and barriers to overcome for e-commerce to flourish in the country.

The digital transformation provides developing economies new opportunities to leapfrog industrial age infrastructure, to draw on the vast knowledge spillovers from the internet, to take advantage of new markets offered by digital platforms and to exploit production possibilities enabled by digital technologies.

Following UNCTAD’s Ecommerce Week in April 2019 and on the cusp of a new partnership with EIF to boost ecommerce, Rwanda’s Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations and other International Organisations in Geneva discusses the state of play for online trade in the country

Virtual connections, transparency and financing through one platform can make for just the right combination to support MSMEs

During UNCTAD’s Ecommerce Week in April 2019, Deputy Director General for International Trade at the Cambodia Ministry of Commerce talks all things e-trade

Bhutan’s potato ‘stock market’ goes online