Ministry of Trade of Kazakhstan to strengthen protection of rights of online buyers

AKIPRESS.COM - Kazakhstan approved the Roadmap for Development of Electronic Commerce for 2019-2025, which allows increasing the share of electronic commerce by 5% by 2025 (from the current 2.9%), the Minister of Trade and Integration Bakhyt Sultanov told a press conference, the press service of the government reported.
"For the development of electronic commerce, we have all the legal conditions. Much attention is paid to modern formats of trade. On April 2, 2019, the Law on the development of the business environment and the regulation of trading activities was adopted, which stipulates the development of electronic and exchange trading. An appropriate infrastructure is being created. Now there are about 20 platforms on the market and about 1700 entrepreneurs work in e-commerce," Sultanov said.
According to him, Kazakhstan plans to develop trade through the Internet with the help of leading world corporations. On Aug. 26, 2019, the Ministry signed an agreement on mutual cooperation between the Ministry and the largest online retailer in Russia, Wildberries, which provides for the participation of Kazakhstani exporters in international trade using e-commerce channels in all areas of Wildberries' presence. It is planned to carry out similar work with other foreign Internet sites to promote Kazakhstani goods for export.
"We will work with them to develop a system for the development of electronic commerce and to increase its share. Today it has a 2.9% share in relation to annual retail trade. During the visit of the Head of State to China, a meeting with representatives of a large electronic platform like Alibaba is planned. Serious players in this area will significantly and in the right direction help us to develop. Our entrepreneurs will be able to actively cooperate with global players, which will subsequently help to rapidly develop e-commerce in Kazakhstan," Sultanov said, noting that cooperation with large Internet commerce entities allows exporting Kazakhstani products.
As Sultanov emphasized, a large role will be given to clarification issues, since the issue of trust is very important in e-commerce.
"Now the buyer in e-commerce is protected to the same extent as in conventional commerce. In general, we continue to review the system of consumer protection and want to make it really more effective. All our work to improve the competitiveness of Kazakhstani products is actually aimed at one thing: every consumer in our country should have a quality product. Our goal is to build a "product pipeline," a reasonable and convenient trading chain from production to the end customer. It is located in Kazakhstan or beyond its borders," said the minister of trade and integration.