Representatives from Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru took part in the seminar on “E-Commerce and the Pacific Alliance” (link in Spanish), organized by the General Directorate of International Economic Relations (DIRECON), ProChile (link in Spanish), and Chile’s Undersecretariat of the Economy.
Government officials responsible for e-commerce policies met with union delegates and businesspeople to discuss breakthroughs in e-commerce and share their experiences regarding the challenges that trading their products and services via digital platforms involves.
Those present agreed that the Pacific Alliance has pioneered initiatives that provide incentives for the development of the digital economy, such as through the interoperability of the single window for foreign trade (VUCE) system. They also underlined the need to continue working together, particularly to take advantage of the benefits this system can offer SMEs.
ProChile director Alejandro Buvinic listed the benefits of exporting via e-commerce, explaining that “the system gives users a permanent, global shop window with millions of potential visitors each day, bringing countries closer to thousands of customers all over the world. Selling products and services via multiple platforms quickly raises the profile of the country’s export supply, especially as these platforms include online payment systems and low entry costs for firms. Here at ProChile we are mindful of these breakthroughs and so have created the ExportaDigital (link in Spanish) program through which we have trained over 600 firms throughout the country.”
While the seminar was being held, the Pacific Alliance Digital Agenda Subgroup also met in Santiago de Chile to work on a roadmap containing concrete measures to be implemented in the coming months. This document focused on four core areas: the digital economy, digital connectivity, digital government, and the digital ecosystem.
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