JEDDAH – Enactment of necessary laws that will protect both buyers and sellers and ensure the safety and security of electronic data and sites is necessary for electronic commerce sector – which is estimated at SR12 billion – to thrive in Saudi Arabia, industry experts said. Creation of specialized commercial courts and availability of advanced and speedy communication tools are also crucial for the sector to further develop, they added. Chairperson of the trade committee at the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI) Nashwa Taher said all issues concerning e-commerce will be discussed at the upcoming Jeddah Economic Forum scheduled on Mach 16-18, 2013. “The annual event will discuss the best ways and means of developing e-commerce in the Kingdom,” she said. Taher added that although e-commerce in the Kingdom has taken some strides, progress is still far behind that of the developed countries. “Commodities represent about 90 percent of e-commerce in the Kingdom while services represent about 10 percent. These ratios may further develop with the increase of trust and confidence in this kind of trade,” she said. Taher urged the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, commercial banks, Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA), government and private companies and all other concerned parties to combine efforts to create conducive atmosphere for e-commerce. Taher said e-commerce should not be limited to marketing commodities but should also expand to include all commercial transactions. She recalled that a permanent committee on e-commerce was established as early as 1999 and the system of e-commerce was submitted to the Council of Ministers in 2002, but no tangible progress had thus far been achieved in this type of trade. Badr Al-Shibani, member of the committee of young businessmen at JCCI, said young men and women are controlling about 70 percent of the e-commerce trade in the Kingdom. He said several large companies in the Kingdom and abroad provide Saudi youths with electronic business curators. “The youth are now selling various commodities including ready-made clothes, leather shoes and other items through these curators,” he noted. Moreover, Al-Shibani said e-commerce can provide between 20,000 to 30,000 job opportunities for Saudi youths, specially women. “This type of trade does not require a large amount of capital. Many young Saudi men and women are now doing business online,” he said. In a recent report, the Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC) said about 3.5 million Saudis, representing 14.26 percent of the total population, are now engaged in trading online. At the end of the third quarter of 2012, more than 15.2 million people in the Kingdom were using the Internet, it added.
