The government seems to try to embrace the development of a local digital eco-system as a recent interview with U Nyi Nyi Aung, Director of the Trade Department under The Ministry of Commerce shows.

Back in 2019, the government formed the Digital Trade and e-Commerce Development Sub-committee under the Digital Economy Development Committee (DEDC). In February this year, and before the COVID-19 pandemic, an e-Commerce Task Force composed of 17 department representatives and led by the Director-General of the Trade Department visited Japan and studied its e-Commerce Legislation and related processes.
The COVID-19 Economic Relief Plan (CERP) itself, issued on 27th of April contains 5 action plans for e-Commerce in its 5th objective.

It’s in this context that a government-private sector virtual dialogue was held in June, attended by 28 representatives of government departments, private businesses and experts as well as 450 individuals. During the dialogue U Nyi Nyi Aung shared some details on how Myanmar is currently in the drafting stage for an e-Commerce Law aiming to set up policies that encourage e-Commerce activities and protect consumers.

He said that Myanmar is currently negotiating with the Word Trade Organization and making sure to comply with the e-Commerce Guidelines issued by the ASEAN and its related agreements. “We are conducting public-private consultations and we want to ensure all stakeholders including the payment industry are included in the planning process.”

At this stage, few specific details have emerged on what the guidelines will contain. “A “Voluntary Registration System” will be set up, a fully-online registration process for e-commerce companies without registration fees. It will also contain citations, objectives, interpretations, legalities, judicial rights, state related laws and rules, duties of e-Commerce businesses on buying and selling, e-Commerce consumer protection rules such as preventing deceiving and misleading consumers, delivery, refunding, compensation, anti-spam measures, information awareness, identity protection, IPR and platform responsibility” U Nyi Nyi Aung added. The digital economy is said to represent less than 0.5% of Myanmar’s GDP as of 2020.