Tajikistan is diligently working to mainstream the ecommerce across the economic and societal space of the country.
On December 24, 2022, the country adopted the Law “On Electronic Commerce”. The Law seeks to protect the rights and legitimate interests of citizens and organizations engaged in e-commerce and ensures the free operation of e-commerce in the country.
An important milestone was the conference on Elevating Global Access through E-Commerce (E-GATE) in Tajikistan, held in Dushanbe on 1-3 March 2024.
It was organized by the World Bank and the IFC – the private sector arm of the World Bank Group – with support from the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO); the Australia Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT); and the Switzerland State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO).
Here is a news story from the Times of Central Asia about the conference. It was published by TCA on 4 March 2024:
On March 1st, Dushanbe played host to ‘Elevating Global Access through E-Commerce (E-GATE)’, a conference organized by the World Bank and the IFC. A first for Tajikistan, its goal was to facilitate knowledge and resource exchange among the country’s small and medium enterprises as well as with regional and global players in the e-commerce ecosystem.
“Recognizing the pivotal role of e-commerce plays in modern economies, the World Bank is actively supporting Tajikistan in its journey to develop appropriate platforms, including E-GATE,” said Ozan Sevimli, World Bank Country Manager for Tajikistan. “The E-GATE program offers Tajik and small medium enterprises highly valuable membership of global B2B e-commerce platforms to access markets unavailable offline, and provide technical support to the government on drafting enabling legislation, and channel global knowledge to Tajik e-sellers through capacity building activities.”
The conference attracted e-commerce stakeholders from Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, as well as global e-commerce giants including Amazon and Alibaba.
In landlocked Tajikistan, as in the whole of Central Asia, the emergence of e-commerce is proving a powerful tool to tap into global markets for locally made products, modernize traditional supply chains, and foster growth in employment opportunities.
According to ECDB, a specialized e-commerce data analytics company (https://ecommercedb.com/markets/tj/all), Tajikistan is currently one of the smaller markets for e-commerce. The predicted revenue for 2024 is $17.1 million but once developed, is expected to increase by 5.4% per annum resulting in a projected market volume of $21.1 million by 2028.
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Here is another story, published by the Times of Central Asia on 7 February 2024:
Russian E-Commerce Giant Wildberries Heads for Tajikistan, Turkmenistan
The founder of the Russian e-commerce platform Wildberries Tatyana Bakalchuk has mentioned in an interview with RIA Novosti that the company is planning on entering the Tajikistan and Turkmenistan markets.
www.wildberries.ru
“We recognize that we must increase the geographic area in which we operate in order to sustain [our] growth rate. First, we are examining the bordering nations. We are already present throughout the nations that make up the EAEU (Eurasian Economic Union). We are now heading to the CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) nations; for instance, we will be entering the market of Tajikistan and Turkmenistan,” Bakalchuk said.
Furthermore, RIA cited Bakalchuk as saying that the organization is presently attempting to establish a logistics network in Azerbaijan. “The Persian Gulf nations and the UAE market both pique our interest. Representatives from the Middle East, for instance, attended the forum ‘Russia – Islamic World’ in May, and many of them showed interest in our work. Thus, we will carefully consider the UAE and the Persian Gulf countries in this regard. We have already begun negotiations with a few nations.”
Wildberries currently operates in Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Russia. The company is an international online store that sells clothing, footwear, electronics, home furnishings and other items across thousands of categories. As of April 2023 it was the ninth-most visited e-commerce portal in the world, according to Statista data. The company was established in Russia in 2004 by husband-and-wife team Vladislav and Tatyana Bakalchuk. /// nCa, 17 May 2024