Seoul (VNA) – ASEAN and the Republic of Korea (RoK) need to forgecloser ties and cooperation in e-commerce as Chinese e-commerce giants such asAlibaba and Tencent are expanding their business in ASEAN through hugeinvestments in companies like Lazada, a leading e-commerce platform in theregion, said Lee Hyuk, Secretary General of the ASEAN-Korea Centre, at the 2018ASEAN Digital Commerce Forum held in Seoul on 4 July.
To this end, the Secretary General added that the forum has been designed toserve as a venue to share experiences, knowledge, and vision of e-commerce toachieve mutually beneficial economic cooperation between ASEAN and the RoK.
According to him, the size of the e-commerce market in ASEAN is expected toincrease by 16 times and reach 90 billion USD by 2025, with 160 millionmiddle-class consumers and rapid improvement in internet penetration.
The event, co-organised by the ASEAN-Korea Centre and the Korea InternationalTrade Association, was attended by around 170 commercial officials and privatesector representatives in the e-commerce sector from ASEAN member states and theRoK.
The opening session was followed by general lectures on e-commerce in Asia andthe Pacific, status and trend of e-commerce market in the RoK and e-commerce ofASEAN.
Besides, government officials and company representatives from ASEAN memberstates introduced the current status of their respective national e-commercemarket. And one-on-one business meetings between ASEAN and RoK companies werealso held to discuss cooperative measures and build business networks.-VNA
ASEAN - RoK’s second biggest farm produce export market
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has become the second largest export market for agricultural and livestock products from the Republic of Korea (RoK) last year as the country's trade with China was hit by a diplomatic row, according to a report by the Korea Rural Economic Institute (KREI).