ASHGABAT, Turkmenistan, June 25. The World Bank's Elevate Global Access Through E-Commerce (E-GATE) program will promote and develop e-commerce in Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, working with governments, business associations, and the private sector, Trend reports.
According to the World Bank, the promotion and development of e-commerce involves developing an e-commerce readiness index for Central Asia, providing capacity-building on business intelligence, e-commerce intelligence (including livestream e-commerce), and onboarding local MSMEs to international e-commerce marketplaces, conducting awareness-raising events to promote local producers worldwide and attract global e-commerce players and potential investors to the region, measuring e-commerce volume through the World Bank “Listening 2” surveys, and providing analytical help in updating legal documents related to the regulation of e-commerce in the countries of Central Asia.
E-GATE utilized the "Listening 2" (L2) tool to survey over 1,500 households in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan in 2023-2024, revealing that most households prefer shopping online through social media or messenger apps rather than traditional marketplaces.
The E-GATE team is implementing a component aimed at onboarding up to 100 selected producers from Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, providing them with financial and non-financial support for their membership on the Alibaba B2B marketplace in 2024.
Meanwhile, Elevate Global Access Through E-Commerce (E-GATE) in Central Asia is a World Bank program launched in 2023, funded by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office (UK FCDO) under the Effective Governance for Economic Development (EGED) program.