1. Myanmar Current Situation on
Digital Economy and Ecommerce
Ecosystem
Nyi Nyi Aung
Director
Department of Trade
Ministry of Commerce

2. Contents
Section I
E-commerce Development
Context
Section II
Processes led by MoC for e-
commerce development

3. MYANMAR E-COMMERCE POLICY BACKGROUND

4. Myanmar Sustainable Development Plan
Pillar 2 - Prosperity and Partnership
Gold 3 - Job Creation & Private Sector-led Growth
Strategy 3.7 - Encourage greater creativity and innovation which will
contribute to the development of a modern economy
3 5 28 251
Pillars Goals Strategies Action Plans

5. Digital Economy Roadmap-Myanmar
 Adopted In May, 2019
Mission
 Enabling Digital Transformation, Digital Government, Digital Trade
and Innovation to develop a Digital Economy across all sectors for
inclusive and sustainable socioeconomic development.

6. Digital Economy Roadmap-Myanmar
Ministry of Commerce implement as focal at
Action Plan-1
 To encourage the development of Digital Trade
and E-Commerce
Action Plan-15
 To enact the law for protection of Intellectual
Property Rights
To implement above Action plans
 Formed Digital trade and e-Commerce
development sub committee on 23 Sep, 2019.

7. Myanmar e-Trade Readiness Assessment
7 Areas  Vision, Policy and Strategy Formulation
 ICT Infrastructure and Services
 Trade Logistics and Trade Facilitation
 Electronic Payment Solutions
 Legal and Regulatory Framework
 e-Commerce Skills Development
 Access to Financing
48 priority
actions:
e-Trade Readiness Assessment and DEDC DE Roadmap
have 25 actions in common: supporting eTrade
Readiness accelerates implementation of DE Roadmap

8. Role of MoC in promoting digital trade and e-
commerce
The mandate from the President
Office was received on 17 August
2018 for coordination and
cooperation with departments and
private sectors for implementation
of the Myanmar eTready Readiness
action matrix.
MoC is tasked by DEDC to
establish policy to promote
digital trade and e-commerce.
(Myanmar Digital Economy Roadmap
Action Plan 1.1 Digital transformation &
digital trade)

9. Myanmar E-Commerce Strategy (Process-1)
 Led by Department of Trade
 Supported by UNCTAD
 First draft ready in March 2020. Validation in June 2020
 Covers 7 policy areas for e-commerce ecosystem

10. Drafting of e-commerce law and
procedures (Process-2)
 Formed E-Commerce Task Force in Dec, 2018 and reorganized
in may, 2019
 Base on themes discussed in Joint Statement on e-Commerce
of WTO.

11. REGULATOR FRAMEWORK FOR DIGITAL ECONOMY
AND E-COMMERCE

12. Paperless Trading System (Process-3)
 IELPS (2004)
 BTOS (2007)
 Re-engineering
 E-Payment
 MCB (2007)
 MPU (2017)
 eCo (2019)

13. Digital Trade Policy (Process-4)
 Develop with support from the Department of Foreign Affairs
and Trade (DFAT Australia)
 On-going, scheduled to be completed in September 2020
 In line with eCommerce Strategy. Will include legal and
regulatory aspects (consumer protection, online IP, status of
marketplaces and vendors, onboarding of SMEs

14. Promoting of consumer confidence
level (Process-5)
 Preparing for Digital Advocacy
 Online shop registration process

15. Public – Private Dialogues are used as platform to Identify
bottlenecks, opportunities and possible interventions for
private sector development and helping negotiators form
positions for multilateral fora
Large for a: Public –
Private Dialogue on
Emerging E-Market
Place in Myanmar
attended by 250 public
and private
participants.
Public – Private
Dialogue on
Transformation to
Digital Economy was
held on June 2 2019,
jointly organized by
UMFCCI.
Focus Group
Discussions on e-
commerce strategy,
eTrade Readiness, Legal
and Regulatory Review
(each attended by 20-
25 persons)
Inclusive Public – Private Dialogue
(Process-6)

16. • MoC convenes
regular Donor
Roundtable
Meeting, back
to back with
Local Launch
Event on 30
October 2018
in Nay Pyi Taw.
• 13 DPs/ Donors
including
eTrade for all
partners
represented at
the meeting.
Donor Coordination on E-commerce
(Process-7)

18. Negotiations at WTO on eCommerce
(Process-8)
The Declaration instructed the General
Council to establish a comprehensive work
programme to examine all trade-related
issues relating to global electronic
commerce, including issues identified by
Members. Ministers also declared that
Members will continue their practice of not
imposing customs duties on electronic
transmissions ("moratorium" on customs
duties)

19.  Fulfill obligations under DEDC DE Roadmap
 Fulfill commitments under ASEAN, RECP and WTO
 Accelerates economic and trade diversification
 Transition towards digital economy and digital government
 Contributes to MSDP
 Support e-commerce ecosystem development
 Create more certainty, visibility and predictability for domestic and foreign
investors
 Create confidence for merchants to sell their goods online and have their
IP protected
 Reduce trade costs, improve financial inclusion
Benefits for Myanmar

20. Take-
aways
1. MoC is working proactively on the development of
a robust e-commerce ecosystem.
2. With DE Roadmap and current e-commerce
development, focus is no longer on ICT (Myanmar
has good infrastructure) but on business
development
3. Still lagging in terms of legal and regulatory
framework. Focus now on consumer and
merchant protection, building trust
4. Myanmar E-commerce strategy and Digital trade
Policy Framework is the current focus and should
be ready in Q3 2020.
5. Strong multilateral trade commitments in ASEAN,
RCEP and now at WTO: needs strong coordination,
cooperation with development partners and
dialogue with private sector