Rwandan entrepreneurs urged to embrace e-commerce to boost trade

Source: Xinhua| 2018-12-21 00:04:02|Editor: yan
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KIGALI, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- Rwandan entrepreneurs must embrace electronic trade platform to widen their market reach and become more productive and competitive in the global trade, Rwandan Minister of ICT and Innovation Paula Musoni, said Thursday.

E-commerce is an innovative and a powerful tool for promoting products online, which is key to boosting industrialization, manufacturing and trade in Rwanda, Musoni said at the Rwanda Internet Governance Forum 2018 in capital Kigali.

The one-day forum dubbed "Accelerating Digital and Internet Economy through E-commerce in Rwanda" seeks to examine ways for Rwandan manufactures and enterprises to engage in and benefit from e-commerce and the evolving global digital economy.

There is an increasingly global trend of shopping online and Rwandan traders should use the opportunity to put their products online to attract international markets, said the minister.

Slow internet penetration, lack of enough information and limited e-logistics facilities place a huge barrier in adopting the e-commerce platform by Rwandan entrepreneurs, she said.

She added that the government is going to ensure the increase in internet penetration in the country to facilitate the growth of e-commerce in Rwanda.

The Rwandan government and China's e-commerce giant Alibaba in October launched Alibaba's Electronic World Trade Platform (eWTP), which makes Rwanda the first African country to launch this platform.

The eWTP initiative aims to promote public-private dialogue to foster a more effective and efficient policy and business environment to enable small and medium-sized enterprises to participate in cross-border electronic trade.

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