Developing skills on financial technologies, big data, and blockchain are vital to reap desired benefits of digital commerce in the country in the era of the fourth industrial revolution.
Besides, knowledge about them is also essential for better monitoring against fraudulent activities in digital commerce, a growing sector that has already proven its inevitability amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
The observations were made at a discussion on "E-Commerce Policy Talk for Addressing 4th Industrial Revolution'' organised by the e-Commerce Association of Bangladesh (e-CAB) at the Bangladesh Film Archive auditorium in the city's Agargaon area on Friday evening.
Chairperson of Bangladesh Competition Commission Md Mofizul Islam, Director General (DG) of Postal Division Md. Siraz Uddin and Deputy General Manager at Payment Systems Department of the Bangladesh Bank Rafeza Akhter Kanta also attended the meeting among others.
On behalf of the organisers, President of the e-CAB Shomi Kaiser, its Vice President Mohammad Sahab Uddin and General Secretary Md. Abdul Wahed Tomal spoke on the occasion.
In his speech, Mofizul Islam said the stakeholders' clear understanding of the concept of a market is required in a bid to achieve economic development and check fraudulence.
"We shall be lagging behind if we cannot adopt digital commerce at the optimum level, as businesses are gradually going digital from traditional form," he said.
Highlighting various rules and regulations related to digital commerce, he said many fraudulence activities still took place in the name of trade that should be handled strictly.
He identified trust-building among buyers and sellers as a major challenge for Bangladesh's e-commerce sector.
Highlighting the fourth industrial revolution, he said: "We have to learn the components like big data, fintech, blockchain, and algorithm to get benefit from the digital commerce."
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Bdjobs.com AKM Fahim Mashroor drew the Competition Commission chief's attention to the uneven competition created by international e-commerce operators in the country.
Mr Mashroor said several multinational operators adopted strategies to eliminate the local operators from the market through tactics like price dumping and unusual subsidies.
Shomi Kaiser said the country's ecommerce sector went this far after many ups and downs beginning from a scratch nearly a decade ago.
"We are still going through the learning process," she said.
However, some unscrupulous businesses tarnished the image of the sector through mischievous activities in recent times, she said.
"The e-CAB is very clear about its stance to follow rules and regulations framed by the government and help every member in this regard," she said.
But learnings from the recent scams in the disguise of e-commerce proved very costly for the sector, she said.
Five keynotes were presented at the meeting. Founder & CEO of Chaldal Limited Waseem Alim spoke on Legal Aspects and Chief Imaginator at DataSense Dr Ananya Raihan talked about 'Straightening Digital Commerce Cell'
Team Head of ekshop, a2i Rezwanul Haque Jami and Founder & CEO of Paperfly Shahriar Hasan spoke on 'Technical Infrastructure for Complaint Logistics and Payment' and Deputy CTO of SSL Wireless Md. Ittekhar Alam Ishaque talked about the ESCROW and Payment Gateway.
Finally, Fahim Mashroor discussed 'Supportive VAT & TAX Policy for e-commerce'.
