This session looks at the opportunities for Least Developed Countries (LDCs) to leverage e-commerce, and digital trade in general, for economic transformation. It will consider how tools of digital promotion are transforming the prospects even for non-tech businesses and how strategic frameworks at country and regional level can serve as catalysts.

Beyond the immediate imperatives for businesses to weather the current turbulence in the macroeconomy, it will consider the longer-term implications of trade shifting to e-commerce and try to understand how far and in what way this can support the Sustainable Development in LDCs.

The session will showcase experiences at the enterprise level and explore success stories on how to create the right environment to enable development benefits from e-commerce by governments and development partners.

Speakers:

• Pamela Coke-Hamilton, Executive Director, ITC
• Torbjörn Fredriksson, Head, E-commerce and Digital Economy Branch, Division on Technology and Logistics, UNCTAD
• E. Seedy Keita, Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs, The Gambia
• Cosmas Zavazava, Director of the Telecommunication Development Bureau, ITU
• Nawshin Khair, Managing Director Aranya Crafts Ltd., Bangladesh
• Tadhim Uwizeye, Founder and CEO of Olado, Rwanda
• James Howe, Head Digital, Markets and Connectivity, ITC (moderator)