The General Secretariat of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is working on limiting the challenges related to e-commerce in member-states, including legal, regulatory or logistical obstacles that prevent optimal use of the advantages of the sector.
It has called on government and private agencies in the Gulf to intensify efforts and collect the information required to give a clear picture to the decision-makers at the council level.
This comes in conjunction with the growth of e-commerce in the GCC countries, as the sector is expected to reach $50 billion by 2025, according to a report by Kearney Middle East.
According to information obtained by Asharq Al-Awsat, the Saudi private sector is currently preparing an integrated file to list the difficulties it faces in e-commerce, before submitting the data to the General Secretariat of the GCC.
These results would contribute to shedding light on the necessary measures to create an appropriate legislative and regulatory climate that keeps pace with developments in the digital world, and within local, regional and international commercial markets.
E-commerce is a major driver of economic growth and helps in expanding the scope of commercial transactions, bringing them to the largest number of companies and consumers, and providing more opportunities and a broader base for transactions.
The Federation of Chambers of the GCC announced its support for the outcome of the consultative meeting of the ministers of trade and industry and representatives of the Gulf private sector, which was held recently in Amman, calling for completing the implementation of the common market paths and addressing the challenges of intra-trade between the council members.
The federation emphasized the need to adopt the necessary steps to support the implementation of the paths of the Gulf common market, in coordination with the GCC General Secretariat, and to present relevant initiatives and studies.
Hassan Al-Huwaizi, President of the Federation of Gulf Chambers, said at the time that they would work to encourage citizens of the GCC countries to interact more with the electronic platform (Takamol), which aims to address inquiries, observations and proposals related to the common market.
