The first meeting of the Intergovernmental Group of Experts on “e-Commerce and the Digital Economy” held by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in Geneva. A representative of the Ministry of Transport, Communications and High Technologies participated in the meeting.
 
The main goal of the experts group is to help developing countries to benefit from e-commerce opportunities and overcome existing problems in this area, considering the fact that the digital economy is unequally developed around the world.

The “Information Economy 2017” report prepared by the UNCTAD was presented at the meeting of intergovernmental group of experts, which brought together representatives of over 70 countries and officials of various international organizations.
 
The meeting discussed issues such as the identification of needs for the formation of competitive e-commerce and  digital economy in developing countries, measures for improving technological infrastructures in developing countries, identification of forms of partnership between developed and developing countries for maximizing the opportunities of e-commerce and eliminating existing problems.

At the meeting, information was also provided on the development of the international platform “www.etradeforall.org” founded by the UNCTAD in 2016. The platform enables emerging economies to benefit from the opportunities of electronic commerce. Through this initiative, countries can reach out to potential partners, get up-to-the-minute information on innovations and e-commerce.

Addressing the event, the representative of the Ministry of Transport, Communications and High Technologies Azer Bayramov highlighted Azerbaijan’s experience in the development of e-commerce and digital economy, as well as important role of electronic government, electronic services and Open Government Data in the development of electronic commerce.

He noted that introduction of the new generation ID cards beginning from 2018, wide use of mobile government and mobile signature in Azerbaijan will provide a significant boost to the development of e-commerce in the country.

Mr. Bayramov informed about the importance of mutual recognition of electronic signatures for the development of electronic commerce between countries and the work done in this area by the Ministry of Transport, Communications and High Technologies.
 

Conference attendees hailed Azerbaijan’s experience in the implementation of electronic signature.