The Kingdom is a member of the Group of States of the Joint Ministerial Statement on Electronic Commerce in the World Trade Organization

Riyadh, 26-26-2019
Saudi Arabia joined the Group of States of the Joint Ministerial Statement on Electronic Commerce of the World Trade Organization (WTO), following the issuance of the supreme approval in this regard.
This came in a statement announced by the General Authority for Foreign Trade.
HE Mr. Abdulrahman bin Ahmed Al Harbi, Governor of the General Foreign Trade Commission, said that the Kingdom’s accession to this group reflects the leadership’s interest in e-commerce to achieve the objectives of the Kingdom’s Vision 2030, promote economic diversification, create an attractive environment for investment and encourage entrepreneurship.
Al-Harbi added that, under the guidance of His Excellency the Chairman of the General Authority for Foreign Trade, Minister of Trade and Investment Dr. Majid bin Abdullah Al-Qassabi, the TRA attaches great importance to the e-commerce file for its contribution in creating new opportunities for access to foreign markets and enhancing the integration of the private sector in global value chains. And the development of the Kingdom’s exports of goods and services in light of the great development of the technical and regulatory infrastructure in the Kingdom, explaining that immediately after the issuance of the approval of the Royal request to join the group to maintain the interests of the Kingdom, Assumptions of e-commerce.
For his part, the Permanent Representative of the Kingdom to the World Trade Organization, Saleh bin Eid Al-Husseini, presented the paper of accession. He stressed at the WTO meeting that the Kingdom’s accession and participation in the negotiations maximizes its economic gains and contributes to the creation of employment opportunities and benefit from the international trade sector and its integration into global value chains, And that the Kingdom is fully prepared to work with the member countries of the Group to take advantage of all opportunities and reach the best results in terms of e-commerce, especially with the next Ministerial Conference in Nur Sultan in Kazakhstan in June 2020, which Will take into account the developmental dimension of developing and least developed countries.
Al Husseini touched on the remarkable development in the Kingdom in this field, including the digital infrastructure and the existence of an e-commerce board, which includes a number of representatives of government agencies and the private sector, which was recently approved.
It is noteworthy that the group of countries of the Joint Ministerial Statement on e-commerce met recently in January on the sidelines of the Davos Economic Forum with the participation of 76 countries, and discussed the challenges of e-commerce and the launch of many growth-oriented negotiations in member countries.