Azernews.Az

By Aygul Salmanova

Turkey and Azerbaijan will expand e-commerce and rendering mutual postal services, the Turkish Ministry of Transport, Maritime Affairs and Communications said in a message quoting Ahmet Arslan, the country’s minister of transport, maritime affairs and communications as saying at the International E-Commerce Conference in Antalya, on November 20.

Arslan noted that the conference in Antalya will give impetus to the development of e-commerce between Turkey and Azerbaijan, as well as between Turkey and other countries.

The minister added that Turkey intends to improve e-commerce.

An agreement on cooperation in the field of e-commerce among Turkey, Azerbaijan and Georgia was signed on June 2017 in Istanbul.

Cross-border e-commerce provides a unique opportunity for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in countries and regions that may traditionally have found it difficult to reach regional and international markets – such as landlocked developing countries – and connect with potential buyers beyond their borders.

The number of internet users in Azerbaijan is increasing annually. Today, Azerbaijan is the leader among the Central Asian and CIS countries for Internet penetration and the country observes an increasing trend in the number of broadband Internet users. This leads to development of the e-commerce as well.

The country has taken several measures to support SMEs in the country as the Labour and Social Protection Ministry developed a program of self-employment. To this end, some 6 million manats ($3.388 million) have been allocated from the Presidential Reserve Fund for the Ministry.

The program envisages that all participants of the program pass special training, and get practical knowledge on the implementation of small and medium scale business, as well as get acquainted with financial aspects of entrepreneurship. Further, they develop business plans and present them to consideration of a special commission. Should the plan is assessed as successful and promising, the participants get all needed assistance for free.

According to the Institute of Statistics of Turkey (TUİK), there are 48 million Internet users in the country, and 43 percent of users of the global network use online shopping daily.

During the six months of 2017 in Turkey, 30.8 billion Turkish lire ($15,5 billion) was spent on online purchases. The Ministry of Finance expects that by the end of the year this figure will reach 50 billion Turkish lire ($12.7 billion).

During the first half of the year, 17.5 billion Turkish lire ($4.4 billion) out of the total volume of online purchases came in retail trade, 10.1 billion Turkish lire ($2,5 billion) - in the tourism sector (hotel reservations), the remaining 3.2 billion Turkish lire (808 million) - in online gambling.

The trade turnover between the two countries amounted to $1.96 billion in January-September 2017, which is demonstrates an increase as compared to the same period of 2016, according to the State Customs Committee of Azerbaijan.