Seoul (VNA) – ASEAN and the Republic of Korea (RoK) need to forge closer ties and cooperation in e-commerce as Chinese e-commerce giants such as Alibaba and Tencent are expanding their business in ASEAN through huge investments in companies like Lazada, a leading e-commerce platform in the region, said Lee Hyuk, Secretary General of the ASEAN-Korea Centre, at the 2018 ASEAN Digital Commerce Forum held in Seoul on 4 July.

To this end, the Secretary General added that the forum has been designed to serve as a venue to share experiences, knowledge, and vision of e-commerce to achieve mutually beneficial economic cooperation between ASEAN and the RoK.

According to him, the size of the e-commerce market in ASEAN is expected to increase by 16 times and reach 90 billion USD by 2025, with 160 million middle-class consumers and rapid improvement in internet penetration.

The event, co-organised by the ASEAN-Korea Centre and the Korea International Trade Association, was attended by around 170 commercial officials and private sector representatives in the e-commerce sector from ASEAN member states and the RoK.

The opening session was followed by general lectures on e-commerce in Asia and the Pacific, status and trend of e-commerce market in the RoK and e-commerce of ASEAN.

Besides, government officials and company representatives from ASEAN member states introduced the current status of their respective national e-commerce market. And one-on-one business meetings between ASEAN and RoK companies were also held to discuss cooperative measures and build business networks.-VNA
VNA