Policy for e-commerce in the making

The government is taking steps to design a separate policy for e-ecommerce to help the sector flourish and strengthen control over fraudulence.

The e-Commerce Association of Bangladesh or e-CAB is preparing a draft of the policy as instructed by the ICT Division, said Razib Ahmed, president of the trade body.

Zunaid Ahmed Palak, state minister for ICT, said the sector would be given more importance this year and the government understands the need for a separate policy. “We have directed the e-CAB to prepare a draft. We will then work on it to accommodate all other stakeholders,” Palak said.

For the draft, the e-CAB is attaching importance to data security, protection against frauds, delivery channels and digital marketing under the planned guideline.

The e-CAB is studying the policies of other countries that are already successful.

At present, e-commerce sales in Bangladesh are worth around Tk 400 crore a year, according to LightCastle Partners, a research centre that works on digital services.

More than 1,000 e-commerce operators are currently running in addition to many other platforms that mainly operate their businesses via Facebook, according to data from the e-CAB.

Ahmed said the market is growing fast and proper regulation is needed to propel further growth.

The market is growing at around 20 percent a year, according to the e-CAB.

With no specific policy in place, entrepreneurs in the sector face different challenges, according to Ahmed.

The government can also make a plan to turn the traditional economy into a digital one through the policy, as e-commerce can help Bangladesh reach its target to export $5 billion of IT and ITES products a year by 2021.