The General Authority for Foreign Trade announces that the Kingdom has become a member of the Group of States of the Joint Ministerial Statement on Electronic Commerce of the World Trade Organization (WTO), following the approval of the Supreme Royal Authority in this regard.
H.E. Mr. Abdulrahman bin Ahmed Al Harbi, Governor of the General Authority for Foreign Trade, pointed out that the Kingdom's membership reflects the leadership's interest in the e-commerce file to achieve the objectives of the Kingdom's Vision 2030, besides promoting economic diversification, also creating an attractive environment for investment, as well as encouraging entrepreneurship.
H.E. Al-Harbi added that, as per the directives of His Excellency the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the General Authority for Foreign Trade, Minister of Commerce and Investment, Dr. Majid bin Abdullah Al-Qassabi, the General Authority for Foreign Trade attaches great importance to the e-commerce file, since it does contribute to creating new opportunities for access to foreign markets, also enhancing the integration of the private sector into the global value chains, besides promoting the Kingdom's exports of goods and services, in light of the great development of the technical and regulatory infrastructure, witnessed recently by the Kingdom. H.E. explains that as soon as the Supreme Royal approval has been issued, we take the initiative to join the aforementioned group. This is to preserve the interests of the Kingdom, and to maximize its gains from E-commerce negotiations.
For his part, the Permanent Representative of the Kingdom to the World Trade Organization, Mr. Saleh bin Eid Al-Husaini, presented the accession paper. Mr. Al Husaini stressed at the WTO meeting that the Kingdom's accession and participation in the negotiations would maximize its economic gains and contributes to creating job opportunities, also the Small & Medium Enterprises would benefit from the world trade and it would witness incorporation in the global value chains. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is fully prepared to work with the member states of the Group to take advantage of the available opportunities and reach the best results in terms of e-commerce, especially with the coming Ministerial Conference in Nur Sultan in Kazakhstan, to be held in June 2020 AD. This conference would take into consideration the development dimension of the developing and least developed countries. H. E. also refers to the recent remarkable development in the Kingdom in this field, including the digital infrastructure and the existence of an e-commerce board, that has been approved recently, which includes a number of representatives from government agencies and the private sector.
It is noteworthy that the group of countries of the Joint Ministerial Statement on e-commerce met last January, on the sidelines of Davos Economic Forum with the participation of 76 countries. They discussed the challenges of e-commerce and launching of many growth-oriented negotiations in the member states.